Maria Mitchell, life, letters, and journals;

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http: //books .google .com/I

Gift of

Burton N. Kendall

STANFORD

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARIES

r

zn

\ '

MARIA MITCHELL

LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS

COMPILED BY

PHEBE MITCHELL KENDALL

*>

ILLUSTRATED

I

r

BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS

ZO MILK STREET
I 896

QBsG

/

7

Copyright, 1896, by Leb and Shepard

All rights rtserved

Maria Mitchkll

Eociitoell anD Cljtntl^

BOSTON U.8.A.

\K'

' L

U

I

::V

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

The parents — Home life — Education, teachers, books —
Astronomical instruments — Solar eclipse of 183 1 —
Teaching — Appointment as librarian of Nantucket
Atheneum — Friendships for young people — Extracts
from diary, 1855 — Music — The piano — Society —
Story-telling — Housework — Extract from diary, 1854,

PAGS

CHAPTER II

** Sweeping" the heavens — Discovery of the comet, 1847 —
Frederick VI. and the comet — Letters from G. P. Bond
and Hon. Edward Everett — Admiral Smyth — Ameri-
can Academy — American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science — Extract from diary, 1855 — Dorothea
Dix — Esther — Divers extracts from diary, 1853, 1854

— Comet of 1854 — Computations for comet — Visit to
Cape Cod — Sandwich and Plymouth — Pilgrim Hall

— Rev. James Freeman Clarke — Accidents in observ-
ing

19

CHAPTER III

Wires in the transit instrument — Deacon Greele — Smith-
sonian fund — ** Doing " — Rachel in ** Phfedre " and
** Adrienne " — Emerson — The hard winter

39

CHAPTER IV

Southern tour — Chicago — St. Louis — Scientific Academy
of St. Louis — Dr. Pope — Dr. Seyffarth — Mississippi
river — Sand-bars — Cherry blossoms — Eclipse of

iv CONTENTS

PAGE

sun — Natchez — New Orleans — Slave market — Negro
church — The ** peculiar institution " — Bible — Judge
Smith — Travelling without escort — Savannah — Rice
plantations — Negro children — Miss Murray —
Charleston — Drive — Condition of slaves — Old build-
ings — Miss Rutledge — Mr. Capers — Class meeting

— Hospitality — Mrs. Holbrook — Miss Pinckney —
Manners — Portraits — Miss Pinckney*s father —
George Washington — Augusta — Nashville — Mrs.
Fogg — Mrs. Polk — Charles Sumner — Mammoth
cave — Chattanooga 56

CHAPTER

First European tour — Liverpool — London — Rev. James
Martineau — Mr. John Taylor — Mr. Lassell — Liver-
pool observatory — The Hawthornes — Shop-keepers
and waiters — Greenwich observatory — Sir George
Airy — Visits to Greenwich — Herr Struv^ *s mission to
England — Dinner party — General Sabine — West-
minster Abbey — Newton*s monument — British mu-
seum — Four great men — St. Paul's — Dr. Johnson

— Opera — Aylesbury — Admiral Smyth's family —
Amateur astronomers — Hartwell house — Dr. Lee . 85

CHAPTER VI

Cambridge — Dr. Whewell — Table conversation — Pro-
fessor Challis — Professor Adams — Customs — Profes-
sor Sedgwick — Caste — King's Chapel — Fellows —
Ambleside — Coniston waters — The lakes — Miss
Southey — Collingwood — Letter to her father —
Herschels — London rout — Professor Stokes — Dr.
Arnott — Edinboro' — Observatory — Glasgow observa-
tory — Professor Nichol — Dungeon Ghyll — English
language — English and Americans — Boys and beg-
gars 112

CHAPTER VII

Adams and Leverrier — The discoverj' of the planet Neptune
— Extract from papers — Professor Bond, of Cambridge,
Mass. — Paris — Imperial observatory — Mons. and
Mme- Leverrier — Reception at Leverrier's— Rooms
in observatory — Rome — Impressions — Apartments
in Rome and Paris — Customs — Holy week — Vespers
at St, Peter's — Women — Frederika Bremer — Paul
Akers — Harriet Hosmer — Coltegio Romano — Fatiier
Secclii — Galileo — Visit to the Roman observatory —
Permlsfiion from Cardinal Antonelli — Spectroscope .

CHAPTER Vm
Mrs. Somerville — Berlin — Humboldt — Mrs. Mitchell's ill-
ness and death — Removal to Lynn, Mass. — Telescope
presented to Miss Mitchell by Elizabeth Peabody and
others — Letters from Admiral Smyth — Colors of
stars — Extract from letter to a friend — San Marino
medal — Other extracts

CHAPTER IX
Life at Vassar College — Anxious mammas — Faculty meet-
ings — President Hill — Professor Peirce — Burlinglon,
la., and solar eclipse — Classes at Vassar — Professor
Mitchell and her pupils — Extracts from diary — Aids

— Scholarships — Address to her students — Imagina-
tion in science — "1 am but a woman " — Maria
Mitchell endowment fund — Emperor of Brazil — Presi-
dent Raymond's death — Dome parties — Comet, 1881

— The apple-tree — " Honor girls " — Mr. Matthf w
Arnold 171

CHAPTER X
Second visit to Europe — Russia — Extracts from diary and
letters — Custom-house peculiarities — Russian rail-
way* — Domes — Russian Ihermomeiers and calendars

VI CONTENTS

PAGE

— The drosky and drivers — Observatory at Pulkova —
Herr Struv^ — Scientific position of Russia — Lan-
guage — Religion — Democracy of the Church — Gov-
ernment — A Russian family — London, 1873 — Frances
Power Cobbe — Bookstores in London — Glasgow
College for Girls 197

CHAPTER XI

Papers — Science — Eclipse of 1878, Denver, Colorado —

Colors of stars 220

CHAPTER XII

Religious matters — President Taylor's remarks — Sermons —
George MacDonald — Rev. Dr. Peabody — Dr. Lyman
Abbott — Professor Henry — Meeting of the American
Scientific Association at Saratoga — Professor Peirce —
Concord School of Philosophy — Emerson — Miss Pea-
body — Dr. Harris — Easter flowers — Whittier —
Rich days — Cooking schools — Anecdotes . . . 239

CHAPTER • XIII

Letter-writing — Woman suffrage — Membership in various
societies — Women's Congress at Syracuse, N.Y. —
Picnic at Medfield, Mass. — Degrees from different col-
leges — Published papers — Failure in health — Re-
signs her position at Vassar College — Letters from
various persons — Death — Conclusion . . . 255

APPENDIX

Introductory note by Hon. Edward Everett . • • • 267
Correspondence relative to the Danish medal . • • • 293

MARIA MITCHELL

CHAPTER I

1818-1846

BIRTH — PARENTS — HOME SURROUNDINGS AND EARLY LIFE

Maria Mitchell was born on the island of Nan-
tucket, Mass., Aug. I, 1818. She was the third child
of William and Lydia [Coleman] Mitchell.

Her ancestors, on both sides, were Quakers for many
generations ; and it was in consequence of the intoler-
ance of the early Puritans that these ancestors had
been obliged to flee from the State of Massachusetts,
and to settle upon this island, which, at that time, be-
longed to the State of New York.

For many years the Quakers, or Friends, as they
called themselves, formed much the larger part of the
inhabitants of Nantucket, and thus were enabled to
crystallize, as it were, their own ideas of what family
and social life should be; and although in course of
time many " world's people ** swooped down and helped
to swell the number of islanders, they still continued to
hold their own methods, and to bring up their children
in accordance with their own conceptions of " Divine
light."

2 MARIA MITCHELL

Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell were married during the war
of 1812 ; the former lacking one week of being twenty-
one years old, and the latter being a few months over
twenty.

The people of Nantucket by their situation endured
many hardships during this period; their ships were
upon the sea a prey to privateers, and communication
with the mainland was exposed to the same danger,
so that it was difficult to obtain such necessaries of life
as the island could not furnish. There were still to be
seen, a few years ago, the marks left on the moors,
where fields of corn and potatoes had been planted in
that trying time.

So the young couple began their housekeeping in a
very simple way. Mr. Mitchell used to describe it as
being very delightful ; it was noticed that Mrs. Mitchell
never expressed herself on the subject, — it was she,
probably, who had the planning to do, to make a little
money go a great way, and to have everything smooth
and serene when her husband came home.

Mrs. Mitchell was a woman of strong character, very
dignified, honest almost to an extreme, and perfectly
self-controlled where control was necessary. She pos-
sessed very strong affections, but her self-control was
such that she was undemonstrative.

She kept a close watch over her children, was clear-
headed, knew their every fault and every merit, and
was an indefatigable worker. It was she who looked
out for the education of the children and saw what
their capacities were.

Mr. Mitchell was a man of great suavity and gentle-

I

I

THE PARENTS

ness ; if left to himself he would never have denied a
single request made to him by one of his children.
His first impulse was to gratify every desire of their
hearts, and if it had not been for the clear head of the
mother, who took care that the household should be
managed wisely and economically, the results might
have been disastrous. The father had wisdom enough
to perceive this, and when a child came to him, and int
a very pathetic and winning way proffered some request:
for an unusual indulgence, he generally replied; " Yes>.
if mother thinks best."

Mr. Mitchell was very fond of bright coloi«s;. as^they
were excluded from the dress of Friends,, te imRilged
himself wherever it was possible. If he were buying
books, and there was a variety of binding, he always
chose the copies with red covers. Even the wooden
framework of the reflecting telescope which he used
was painted a brilliant red. He liked a gay carpet on
the floor, and the walls of the family sitting-room in the
house on Vestal street were covered with paper resplen-
dent with bunches of pink roses. Suspended by a
cord from the ceiling in the centre of this room was
a glass ball, filled with water, used by Mr. Mitchell in
his experiments on polarization of light, flashing its
dancing rainbows about the room.

At the back of this house was a little garden, full of
gay flowers : so that if the garb of the young Mitchells
was rather sombre, the setting was bright and cheerful,
and the life in the home was healthy and wide-awake.
When the hilarity became excessive the mother would
put in her little check, from time to time, and the father

4 MARIA MITCHELL

would try to look as he ought to, but he evidently
enjoyed the whole.

As Mr. Mitchell was kind and indulgent to his chil-
dren, so he was the sympathetic friend and counsellor
of many in trouble who came to him for help or
advice. As he took his daily walk to the little farm
about a mile out of town, where, for an hour or two
he enjoyed being a farmer, the people would come
to their doors to speak to him as he passed, and the
little children would run up to him to be patted on
the head.

He treated animals in the same way. He generally
kept a horse. His children complained that although
the horse was good when it was bought, yet as Mr.
Mitchell never allowed it to be struck with a whip, nor
urged to go at other than a very gentle trot, the horse
became thoroughly demoralized, and was no more fit to
drive than an old cow !

There was everything in the home which could amuse
and instruct children. The eldest daughter was very
handy at all sorts of entertaining occupations ; she had
a delicate sense of the artistic, and was quite skilful
with her pencil.

The present kindergarten system in its practice is
almost identical with the home as it appeared in the first
half of this century, among enlightened people. There
is hardly any kind of handiwork done in the kindergar-
ten that was not done in the Mitchell family, and in
other families of their acquaintance. The girls learned
to sew and cook, just as they learned to read, — as
a matter of habit rather than of instruction. They

THE PARENTS

5

learned how to make their own clothes, by making their
dolls* clothes, — and the dolls themselves were fre-
quently home-made, the eldest sister painting the faces
much more prettily than those obtained at the shops ;
and there was a great delight in gratifying the fancy,
by dressing the dolls, not in Quaker garb, but in all of
the most brilliant colors and stylish shapes worn by the
ultra-fashionable.

There were always plenty of books, and besides those
in the house there was the Atheneum Library, which,
although not a free library, was very inexpensive to the
shareholders.

There was another very striking difference between
that epoch and the present. The children of that day
were taught to value a book and to take excellent care
of it ; as an instance it may be mentioned that one copy
of Colburn*s " Algebra " was used by eight children in
the Mitchell family, one after the other. The eldest
daughter's name was written on the inside of the cover ;
seven more names followed in the order of their ages,
as the book descended.

With regard to their reading, the mother examined
every book that came into the house. Of course there
were not so many books published then as now, and the
same books were read over and over. Miss Edgeworth*s
stories became part of their very lives, and Young's
** Night Thoughts,*' and the poems of Cowper and
Bloomfield were conspicuous objects on the book-
shelves of most houses in those days. Mr. Mitchell
was very apt, while observing the heavens in the even-
ing, to quote from one or the other of these poets, or

6 MARIA MITCHELL

from the Bible. ** An undevout astronomer is mad " was
one of his favorite quotations.

Among the poems which Maria learned in her child-
hood, and which was repeatedly upon her lips all
through her life, was, ** The spacious firmament on
high." In her latter years if she had a sudden fright
which threatened to take away her senses she would test
her mental condition by repeating that poem; it is
needless to say that she always remembered it, and her
nerves instantly relapsed into their natural condition.

The lives of Maria Mitchell and her numerous
brothers and sisters were passed in simplicity and with
an entire absence of anything exciting or abnormal.

The education of their children is enjoined upon the
parents by the *' Discipline," and in those days at least
the parents did not give up all the responsibility in that
line to the teachers. In Maria Mitchell's childhood the
children of a family sat around the table in the evenings
and studied their lessons for the next day, — the parents
or the older children assisting the younger if the lessons
were too difficult. The children attended school five
days in the week, — six hours in the day, — and their
only vacation was four weeks in the summer, generally
in August.

The idea that children over-studied and injured their
health was never promulgated in that family, nor indeed
in that community; it seems to be a notion of the
present half-century.

Maria's first teacher was a lady for whom she always
felt the warmest affection, and in her diary, written in
her later years, occurs this allusion to her:

THE PARENTS

" I count in my life, outside of family relatives, three
aids given me on my journey ; they are prominent to
me : the woman who first made the study-book charm-
ing ; the man who sent me the first hundred dollars I
ever saw, to buy books with ; and another noble woman,
through whose efforts I became the owner of a tele-
scope ; and of these, the first was the gl-eatest."

As a little girl, Maria was not a brilliant scholar ; she
was shy and slow ; but later, under her father's tuition,
she developed very rapidly.

After the close of the war of 1 812, when business was
resumed and the town restored to its normal prosperity,
Mr. Mitchell taught school, — at first as master of a
public school, and afterwards in a private school of his
own. Maria attended both of these schools.

Mr. Mitchell's pupils speak of him as a most inspiring
teacher, and he always spoke of his experiences in that
capacity as very happy.

When her father gave up teaching, Maria was put
under the instruction of Mr. Cyrus Peirce, afterwards
principal of the first normal school started in the
United States.

Mr. Peirce took a great interest in Maria, especially
in developing her taste for mathematical study, for
which she early showed a remarkable talent.

The books which she studied at the age of seventeen,
as we know by the date of the notes, were Bridge's
" Conic Sections," Hutton's " Mathematics," and Bow-
ditch's "Navigator." At that time Prof. Benjamin
Peirce had not published his " Explanations of the Nav-
igator and Almanac," so that Maria was obliged to

8 MAR/A MITCHELL

consult many scientific books and reports before she
could herself construct the astronomical tables.

Mr. Mitchell, on relinquishing school-teaching, was
appointed cashier of the Pacific Bank ; but although he
gave up teaching, he by no means gave up studying his
favorite science, astronomy, and Maria was his willing
helper at all times.

Mr. Mitchell from his early youth was an enthusias-
tic student of astronomy, at a time, too, when very little
attention was given to that study in this country. His
evenings, when pleasant, were spent in observing the
heavens, and to the children, accustomed to seeing such
observations going on, the important study in the world
seemed to be astronomy. One by one, as they became
old enough, they were drafted into the service of count-
ing seconds by the chronometer, during the observa-
tions.

Some of them took an interest in the thing itself, and
others considered it rather stupid work, but they all
drank in so much of this atmosphere, that if any one
had asked a little child in this family, " Who was the
greatest man that ever lived? *' the answer would have
come promptly, " Herschel."

Maria very early learned the use of the sextant.
The chronometers of all the whale ships were brought
to Mr. Mitchell, on their return from a voyage, to be
" rated," as it was called. For this purpose he used the
sextant, and the observations were made in the little
back yard of the Vestal-street home.

There was also a clumsy reflecting telescope made
on the Herschelian plan, but of very great simplicity.

THE PARENTS

which was put up on fine nights in the same back yard,
when the neighbors used to flock in to look at the
moon. Afterwards Mr. Mitchell bought a small Dol-
land telescope, which thereafter, as long as she lived,
his daughter used for " sweeping " purposes.

After their removal to the bank building there were
added to these an " altitude and azimuth circle," loaned
to Mr. Mitchell by West Point Academy, and two
transit instruments. A little observatory for the use of
the first was placed on the roof of the bank building,
and two small buildings were erected in the yard for the
transits. There was also a much larger and finer tele-
scope loaned by the Coast Survey, for which service
Mr. Mitchell made observations.

At the time when Maria Mitchell showed a decided
taste for the study of astronomy there was no school in
the world where she could be taught higher mathe-
matics and astronomy. Harvard College, at that time,
had no telescope better than the one which her father
was using, and no observatory except the little octag-
onal projection to the old mansion in Cambridge
occupied by the late Dr. A. P. Peabody.

However, every one will admit that no school nor
institution is better for a child than the home, with an
enthusiastic parent for a teacher.

At the time of the annular eclipse of the sun in 183 1
the totality was central at Nantucket. The window was
taken out of the parlor on Vestal street, the telescope,
the little Dolland, mounted in front of it, and with Maria
by his side counting the seconds the father observed
the eclipse. Maria was then twelve years old.

lO MARIA MITCHELL

At sixteen Miss Mitchell left Mr. Peirce's school as a
pupil, but was retained as assistant teacher ; she soon
relinquished that position and opened a private school
on Traders' Lane. This school too she gave up for the
position of librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, which
office she held for nearly twenty years.

This library was open only in the afternoon, and on
Saturday evening. The visitors were comparatively
few in the afternoon, so that Miss Mitchell had ample
leisure for study, — an opportunity of which she made
the most. Her visitors in the afternoon were elderly
men of leisure, who enjoyed talking with so bright a
girl on their favorite hobbies. When they talked Miss
Mitchell closed her book and took up her knitting, for
she was never idle. With some of these visitors the
friendship was kept up for years.

It was in this library that she found La Place's
" Mecanique Celeste,*' translated by her father's friend,
Dr. Bowditch; she also read the **Theoria Motus," of
Gauss, in its original Latin form. In her capacity as
librarian Miss Mitchell to a large extent controlled the
reading of the young people in the town. Many of
them on arriving at mature years have expressed their
gratitude for the direction in which their reading was
turned by her advice.

Miss Mitchell always had a special friendship for
young girls and boys. Many of these intimacies grew
out of the acquaintance made at the library, — the
young girls made her their confidante and went to her
for sympathy and advice. The boys, as they grew up,
and went away to sea, perhaps, always remembered her,

THE PARENTS II

and made a point, when they returned in their vaca^

»

tions, of coming to tell their experiences to such a
sympathetic listener.

"April 1 8, 1855. A young sailor boy came to see me
to-day. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on
their return from their first voyage, and tell me how
much they have learned about navigation. They
always say, with pride, * I can take a lunar,. Miss
Mitchell, and work it up ! '

" This boy I had known only as a boy, but he has
suddenly become a man and seems to be full of intelli-
gence. He will go once more as a sailor, he says, and
then try for the position of second mate. He looked as
if he had been a good boy and would make a good
man.

'* He said that he had been ill so mach that he had
been kept out of temptation; but that the forecastle
of a ship was no place for improvement of mind or
morals. He said the captain with whom he came home
asked him if he knew me, because he had heard of me.
I was glad to find that the captain was a man of intelli-
gence and had been kind to the boy.'^

Miss Mitchell was an inveterate reader. She de-
voured books on all subjects. If she saw that boys
were eagerly reading a certain book she immediately
read it; if it were harmless she encouraged them to
read it ; if otherwise, she had a convenient way of los-
ing the book. In November, when the trustees made
their annual examination, the book appeared upon the
shelf, but the next day after it was again lost. At
this time Nantucket was a thriving, busy town. The

12 MARIA MITCHELL

whale-fishery was a very profitable business, and the
town was one of the wealthiest in the State. There
was a good deal of social and literary life. In a Friend's
family neither music nor dancing was allowed.

Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell were by no means narrow sec-
tarians, but j:hey believed it to be best to conform to
the rules of Friends as laid down in the *' Discipline."
George Fox himself, the founder of the society, had
blown a blast against music, and especially instrumental
music in churches. It will be remembered that the
Methodists have but recently yielded to the popular
demand in this respect, and have especially favored
congregational singing.

It is most likely that George Fox had no ear for
music himself, and thus entailed upon his followers an
obligation from which they are but now freeing them-
selves.

There was plenty of singing in the Mitchell family,
and the parents liked it, especially the father, who, when
he sat down in the evening with the children, would say,
** Now sing something." But there could be no instruc-
tion in singing ; the children sang the songs that they
picked up from their playmates.

However, one of the daughters bought a piano, and
Maria's purse opened to help that cause along. It
would not have been proper for Mr. Mitchell to help
pay for it, but he took a great interest in it, nevertheless.
So indeed did the mother, but she took care not to
express herself outwardly.

The piano was kept in a neighboring building not too
far off to be heard from the house. Maria had no ear

THE PARENTS 1 3

for music herself, but she was always to be depended
upon to take the lead in an emergency, so the sisters
put their heads together and decided that the piano
must be brought into the house. When they had made
all the preparations the father and mother were invited
to take tea with their married daughter, who lived in
another part of the town and had been let into the
secret.

The piano was duly removed and placed in an upper
room called the "hall," where Mr. Mitchell kept the
chronometers, where the family sewing was done, and
where the larger part of the books were kept, — a
beautiful room, overlooking " the square," and a great
gathering-place for all their young friends. When the
piano was put in place, the sisters awaited the coming
of the parents. Maria stationed herself at the foot of
the stairs, ready to meet them as they entered the front
door ; another, half-way between, was to give the signal
to a third, who was seated at the piano. The footsteps
were heard at the door, the signal was given ; a lively
tune was started, and Maria confronted the parents as
they entered.

" What's that? " was the exclamation.

" Well," said Maria, soothingly, ** we've had the piano
brought over."

" Why, of all things ! " exclaimed the mother.

The father laid down his hat, walked immediately
upstairs, entered the hall, and said, ** Come, daughter,
play something lively ! "

So that was all.

But that was not all for Mr. Mitchell ; he had broken

14 MARIA MITCHELL

the rules accepted by the Friends, and it waS necessary
for some notice to be taken of it, so a dear old Friend
and neighbor came to deal with him. Now, to be
"under dealings," as it is called, was a very serious
matter, — to be spoken of only under the breath, in a
half whisper.

" I hear that thee has a piano in thy house," said the
old Friend.

** Yes, my daughters have," was the reply.

" But it is in thy house," pursued the Friend.

" Yes ; but my home is my children's home as well
as mine," said Mr. Mitchell, " and I propose that they
shall not be obliged to go away from home for their
pleasures. I don't play on the piano."

It so happened that Mr. Mitchell held the property
of the " monthly meeting " in his hands at the time,
and it was a very improper thing for the accredited
agent of the society to be " under dealings," as Mr.
Mitchell gently suggested.

This the Friend had not thought of, and so he said,
^* Well, William, perhaps we'd better say no more about
it."

When the father came home after this interview he
'could not keep it to himself. If it had been the mother
who was interviewed she would have kept it a profound
secret, — because she would not have liked to have her
children get any fun out of the proceedings of the old
Friend. But Mr. Mitchell told the story in his quiet
way, the daughters enjoyed it, and declared that the
piano was placed upon a firm foothold by this proceed-
ing. The news spread abroad, and several other young

THE PARENTS 1 5

Quaker girls eagerly seized the occasion to gratify their
musical longings in the same direction.^

Few women with scientific tastes had the advantages
which surrounded Miss Mitchell in her own home.
Her father was acquainted with the most prominent
scientific men in the country, and in his hospitable
home at Nantucket she met many persons of distinc-
tion in literature and science.

She cared but little for general society, and had al-
ways to be coaxed to go into company. Later in life,
however, she was much more socially inclined, and took
pleasure in making and receiving visits. She could
neither dance nor sing, but in all amusements which
require quickness and a ready wit she was very happy.
She was very fond of children, and knew how to amuse
them and to take care of them. As she had half a
dozen younger brothers and sisters, she had ample
opportunity to make herself useful.

She was a capital story-teller, and always had a story
on hand to divert a wayward child, or to soothe the
little sister who was lying awake, and afraid of the dark.
She wrote a great many little stories, printed them with
a pen, and bound them in pretty covers. Most of
them were destroyed long ago.

Maria took her part in all the household work. She
knew how to do everything that has to be done in a
large family where but one servant is kept, and she did
everything thoroughly. If she swept a room it became

^ It is pleasant to note that this objection to music among Friends is a thing
of the past, and that the Friends' School at Providence, R.I., which is under
the control of the " New England Yearly Meeting of Friends," has music in
its regular curriculum.

1 6 MARIA MITCHELL

clean. She might not rearrange the different articles of
furniture in the most artistic manner, but everything
would be clean, and there would be nothing left crooked.
If a chair was to be placed, it would be parallel to
something ; she was exceedingly sensitive to a line out
of the perpendicular, and could detect the slightest
deviation from that rule. She had also a sensitive eye
in the matter of color, and felt any lack of harmony in
the colors worn by those about her.

Maria was always ready to " bear the brunt," and
could at any time be coaxed by the younger children to
do the things which they found difficult or disagreeable.

The two youngest children in the family were deli-
cate, and the special care of the youngest sister de-
volved upon Maria, who knew how to be a good nurse
as well as a good playfellow. She was especially care-
ful of a timid child ; she herself was timid, and, through-
out her life, could never witness a thunder-storm with
any calmness.

On one of those occasions so common in an Ameri-
can household, when the one servant suddenly takes her
leave, or is summarily dismissed. Miss Mitchell de-
scribes her part of the family duties:

** Oct. 21, 1854. This morning I arose at six, having
been half asleep only for some hours, fearing that I
might not be up in time to get breakfast, a task which I
had volunteered to do the preceding evening. It was but
half light, and I made a hasty toilet. I made a fire very
quickly, prepared the coffee, baked the graham bread,
toasted white bread, trimmed the solar lamp, and made
another fire in the dining-room before seven o'clock.

) 4
1

THE PARENTS 1 7

" I always thought that servant-girls had an easy time
of it, and I still think so. I really found an hour too
long for all this, and when I rang the bell at seven for
breakfast I had been waiting fifteen minutes for the
clock to strike.

" I went to the Atheneum at 9.30, and having de-
cided that I would take the Newark and Cambridge
places of the comet, and work them up, I did so, getting
to the three equations before I went home to dinner
at 12.30. I omitted the corrections of parallax and
aberrations, not intending to get more than a rough
approximation, I find to my sorrow that they do not
agree with those from my own observations. I shall
look over them again next week.

" At noon I ran around and did up several errands,
dined, and was back again at my post by 1.30. Then I
looked over my morning's work, — I can find no mis-
take. I have worn myself thin trying to find out about
this comet, and I know very little now in the matter.

" I saw, in looking over Cooper, elements of a comet
of 1825 which resemble what I get out for this, from
my own observations, but I cannot rely upon my own.

** I saw also, to-day, in the * Monthly Notices,' a plan
for measuring the light of stars by degrees of illumina-
tion, — an idea which had occurred to me long ago,
but which I have not practised.

** October 23. Yesterday I was again reminded of the
remark which Mrs. Stowe makes about the variety of
occupations which an American woman pursues.

** She says it is this, added to the cares and anxieties.

1 8 MARIA MITCHELL

which keeps them so much behind the daughters of
England in personal beauty.

** And to-day I was amused at reading that one of her
party objected to the introduction of waxed floors into
American housekeeping, because she could seem to see
herself down on her knees doing the waxing.

" But of yesterday. I was up before six, made the
fire in the kitchen, and made coff*ee. Then I set the
table in the dining-room, and made the fire there.
Toasted bread and trimmed lamps. Rang the break-
fast bell at seven. After breakfast, made my bed,
and 'put up* the room. Then I came down to the
Atheneum and looked over my comet computations
till noon. Before dinner I did some tatting, and made
seven button-holes for K. I dressed and then dined.
Came back again to the Atheneum at 1.30, and looked
over another set of computations, which took me until
four o'clock. I was pretty tired by that time, and
rested by reading ' Cosmos.' Lizzie E. came in, and I
gossiped for half an hour. I went home to tea, and
that over, I made a loaf of bread. Then I went up to
my room and read through (partly writing) two exer-
cises in German, which took me thirty-five minutes.

" It was stormy, and I had no observing to do, so I sat
down to my tatting. Lizzie E. came in and I took a
new lesson in tatting, so as to make the pearl-edged.
I made about half a yard during the evening. At a
little after nine I went home with Lizzie, and carried a
letter to the post-office. I had kept steadily at work for
sixteen hours when I went to bed."

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 19

CHAPTER II

1847-1854

MISS Mitchell's comet — extracts from diary — the comet

Miss Mitchell spent every clear evening on the
house-top "sweeping" the heavens.

No matter how many guests there might be in the
parlor, Miss Mitchell would slip out, don her regimentals
as she called them, and, lantern in hand, mount to the
roof.

On the evening of Oct. i , 1 847, there was a party of
invited guests at the Mitchell home. As usual, Maria
slipped out, ran up to the telescope, and soon returned
to the parlor and told her father that she thought she
saw a comet. Mr. Mitchell hurried upstairs, stationed
himself at the telescope, and as soon as he looked at
the object pointed out by his daughter declared it to
be a comet. Miss Mitchell, with her usual caution,
advised him to say nothing about it until they had
observed it long enough to be tolerably sure. But Mr.
Mitchell immediately wrote to Professor Bond, at
Cambridge, announcing the discovery. On account of
stormy weather, the mails did not leave Nantucket until
October 3.

Frederick VI., King of Denmark, had offered, Dec.
17, 1 83 1, a gold medal of the value of twenty ducats to
the first discoverer of a telescopic comet. The regula-

20 MARIA MITCHELL

tions, as revised and amended, were republished, in
April, 1840, in the " Astronomische Nachrichten."

When this comet was discovered, the king who had
offered the medal was dead. The son, Frederick VII.,
who had succeeded him, had not the interest in science
which belonged to his father, but he was prevailed upon
to carry out his father's designs in this particular case.

The same comet had been seen by Father de Vico at
Rome, on October 3, at 7.30 P.M., and this fact was
immediately communicated by him to Professor Schu-
macher, at Altona. On the 7th of October, at 9.20
P.M., the comet was observed by Mr. W. R. Dawes, at
Kent, England, and on the nth it was seen by Madame
Riimker, the wife of the director of the observatory at
Hamburg.

The following letter from the younger Bond will show
the cordial relations existing between the observatory
at Cambridge and the smaller station at Nantucket :

Cambridge, Oct. 20, 1847.

Dear Maria : There ! I think that is a very amiable begin-
ning, considering the way in which I have been treated by you !
If you are going to find any more comets, can you not wait till
they are announced by the proper authorities.^ At least, don't kid-
nap another such as this last was.

If my object were to make you fear and tremble, I should tell
you that on the evening of the 30th I was sweeping within a few
degrees of your prize. I merely throw out the hint for what it is
worth.

It has been very interesting to watch the motion of this comet
among the stars with the great refractor; we could almost see
it move.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 21

An account of its passage over the star mentioned by your
father when he was here, would make an interesting notice for
one of the foreign journals, which we would readily forward. . . .
[Here follow Mr. Bond's observations.]

Respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

G. P. Bond.

Hon. Edward Everett, who at that time was presi-
dent of Harvard College, took a great interest in the
matter, and immediately opened a correspondence with
the proper authorities, and sent a notice of the dis-
covery to the " Astronomische Nachrichten."

The priority of Miss Mitchell's discovery was im-
mediately admitted throughout Europe.

The King of Denmark very promptly referred the
matter to Professor Schumacher, who reported in favor
of granting the medal to Miss Mitchell, and the medal
was duly struck off and forwarded to Mr. Everett.

Among European astronomers who urged Miss
Mitchell's claim was Admiral Smyth, whom she knew
through his " Celestial Cycle," and who later, on her
visit to England, became a warm personal friend.
Madame Riimker, also, sent congratulations.

Mr. Everett announced the receipt of the medal to
Miss Mitchell in the following letter :

Cambridge, March 29, 1849.

My dear Miss Mitchell: I have the pleasure to inform
you that your medal arrived by the last steamer ; it reached me by
mail, yesterday afternoon.

I went to Boston this morning, hoping to find you at the Adams
House, to put it into your own hand.

22 MARIA MITCHELL

As your return to Nantucket prevented this, I, of course, retain
it, subject to your orders, not liking to take the risk again of its
transmission by mail.

Having it in this way in my hand, I have taken the liberty to
show it to some friends, such as W. C. Bond, Professor Peirce, the
editors of the ** Transcript," and the members of my family, —
which I hope you will pardon.

I remain, my dear Miss Mitchell, with great regard.

Very faithfully yours,

Edward Everett.'

In 1848 Miss Mitchell was elected to membership by
the " American Academy of Arts and Sciences," unani-
mously; she was the first and only woman ever ad-
mitted. In the diploma the printed word " Fellow" is
erased, and the words " Honorary Member " inserted by
Dr. Asa Gray, who signed the document as secretary.
Some years later, however, her name is found in the list
of Fellows of this Academy, also of the American Insti-
tute and of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. For many years she attended the
annual conventions of this last-mentioned association, in
which she took great interest.

The extract below refers to one of these meetings,
probably that of 1855 :

"August 23. It is really amusing to find one's self
lionized in a city where one has visited quietly for
years ; to see the doors of fashionable mansions open
wide to receive you, which never opened before. I sus-
pect that the whole corps of science laughs in its
sleeves at the farce.

*See Appendix.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 23

" The leaders make it pay pretty well. My friend
Professor Bache makes the occasions the opportunities
for working sundry little wheels, pulleys, and levers ; the
result of all which is that he gets his enormous appro-
priations of $400,000 out of Congress, every winter, for
the maintenance of the United States Coast Survey.

** For a few days Science reigns supreme, — we are
ffited and complimented to the top of our bent, and al-
though complimenters and complimented must feel that
it is only a sort of theatrical performance, for a few
days and over, one does enjoy acting the part of great-
ness for a while ! I was tired after three days of it, and
glad to take the cars and run away.

" The descent into a commoner was rather sudden. I
went alone to Boston, and when I reached out my free
pass, the conductor read it through and handed it back,
saying in a gruff voice, ' It's worth nothing ; a dollar
and a quarter to Boston.' Think what a downfall 1 the
night before, and

' One blast upon my bugle horn
Were worth a hundred men ! *

Now one man alone was my dependence, and that
man looked very much inclined to put me out of the
car for attempting to pass a ticket that in his eyes was
valueless. Of course I took it quietly, and paid the
money, merely remarking, * You will pass a hundred per-
sons on this road in a few days on these same tickets.'
" When I look back on the paper read at this meeting

by Mr. J in his uncouth manner, I think when a

man is thoroughly in earnest, how careless he is of mere
words! "

th

I-

s

r

24 MARIA MITCHELL

In 1849 Miss Mitchell was asked by the late Admiral f^

Davis, who had just taken charge of the American
Nautical Almanac, to act as computer for that work, — a
proposition to which she gladly assented, and for nine-
teen years she held that position in addition to her
other duties. This, of course, made a very desirable
increase to her income, but not necessarily to her ex-
penses. The tables of the planet Venus were assigned
to her. In this year, too, she was employed by Pro-
fessor Bache, of the United States Coast Survey, in the Y
work of an astronomical party at Mount Independence,
Maine.

"1853. I was told that Miss Dix wished to see me,
and I called upon her. It was dusk, and I did not at
once see her; her voice was low, not particularly
sweet, but very gentle. She told me that she had heard
Professor Henry speak of me, and that Professor Henry
was one of her best friends, the truest man she knew.
When the lights were brought in I looked at her. She
must be past fifty, she is rather small, dresses indif-
ferently, has good features in general, but indifferent
eyes. She does not brighten up in countenance in
conversing. She is so successful that I suppose there
must be a hidden fire somewhere, for heat is a motive
power, and her cold manners could never move Legis-
latures. I saw some outburst of fire when Mrs. Hale's
book was spoken of. It seems Mrs. Hale wrote to her
for permission to publish a notice of her, and was
decidedly refused ; another letter met with the same
answer, yet she wrote a * Life,' which Miss Dix says
is utterly false.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 2$

** In her general sympathy for suffering humanity,
Miss Dix seems neglectful of the individual interest.
She has no family connection but a brother, has never
had sisters, and she seemed to take little interest in the
persons whom she met. I was surprised at her feeling
any desire to see me. She is not strikingly interesting
in conversation, because she is so grave, so cold, and
so quiet. I asked her if she did not become at times
weary and discouraged ; and she said, wearied, but not
discouraged, for she had met with nothing but success.
There is evidently a strong will which carries all be-
fore it, not like the sweep of the hurricane, but like the
slow, steady, and powerful march of the molten lava.

" It is sad to see a woman sacrificing the ties of the
affections even to do good. I have no doubt' Miss Dix
does much good, but a woman needs a home and the
love of other women at least, if she lives without that
of man."

The following entry was made many years after : —

"August, 1871. I have just seen Miss Dix again,
having met her only once for a few minutes in all the
eighteen years. She listened to a story of mine about
some girls in need, and then astonished me by an offer
she made me."
I " Feb. IS, 1853. I think Dr. Hall [in his ' Life of Mary

Ware*] does wrong when he attempts to encourage the
use of the needle. It seems to me that the needle is
the chain of woman, and has fettered her more than the
laws of the country.

" Once emancipate her from the * stitch, stitch, stitch,*
the industry of which would be commendable if it

26 MARIA MITCHELL

served any purpose except the gratification of her
vanity, and she would have time for studies which would
engross as the needle never can. I would as soon put
a girl alone into a closet to meditate as give her only
the society of her needle. The art of sewing, so far as
men learn it, is well enough ; that is, to enable a person
to take the stitches^ and, if necessary, to make her own
garments in a strong manner ; but the dressmaker should
no more be a universal character than the carpenter.
Suppose every man should feel it is his duty to do his
own mechanical work of all kinds, would society be
benefited? would the work be well done? Yet a
woman is expected to know how to do all kinds of sew-
ing, all kinds of cooking, all kinds of any woman* s work,
and the consequence is that life is passed in learning
these only, while the universe of truth beyond remains
unentered.

" May 1 1, 1853. I could not help thinking of Esther
[a much-loved cousin who had recently died] a few
evenings since when I was observing. A meteor flashed
upon me suddenly, very bright, very short-lived; it
seemed to me that it was sent for me especially, for it
greeted me almost the first instant I looked up, and was
gone in a second, — it was as fleeting and as beautiful
as the smile upon Esther's face the last time I saw her.
I thought when I talked with her about death that,
though she could not come to me visibly, she might be
able to influence my feelings ; but it cannot be, for my
faith has been weaker than ever since she died) and my
fears have been greater."

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 2?

A few pages farther on in the diary appears this
poem :

** ESTHER

« Living, the hearts of all around
Sought hers as slaves a throne ;
Dying, the reason first we found —
The fulness of her own.

" She gave unconsciously the while
A wealth we all might share —
To me the memory of the smile
That last I saw her wear.

*< Earth lost from out its meagre store
A bright and precious stone ;
Heaven could not be so rich before,
But it has richer. grown.**

"Sept. 19, 1853. I am surprised to find the verse
which I picked up somewhere and have always ad-
mired —

" * Oh, reader, had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring.
Oh, gentle reader', you would find
A tale in everything * —

belonging to Wordsworth and to one of Wordsworth's
simple, I am almost ready to say silly ^ poems. I am
in doubt what to think of Wordsworth. I should be
ashamed of some of his poems if I had written them
myself, and yet there are points of great beauty, and
lines which once in the mind will not leave it.

" Oct. 31, 1853. People have to learn sometimes not
only how much the heart, but how much the head, can
bear. My letter came from Cambridge [the Harvard

28 MARIA MITCHELL

Obs^ervatory] , and I had some work to do over. It was
.a wearyful job, but by dint of shutting myself up all
day I did manage to get through with it. The good of
tny travelling showed itself then, when I was too tired
to read, to listen, or to talk ; for the beautiful scenery of
the West was with me in the evening, instead of the
ledious columns of logarithms. It is a blessed thing
:that these pictures keep in the mind and come out at
the needful hour. I did not call them, but they seemed
to come forth as a regulator for my tired brain, as if
they had been set sentinel-like to watch a proper time
'Xo appear.

** November, 1853. There is said to be no up or down
in creation, but I think the world must be loWy for
people who keep themselves constantly before it do a
great deal of stooping !

** Dec. 8, 1853. Last night we had the first meeting
of the class in elocution. It was very pleasant, but my
deficiency of ear was never more apparent to myself.
We had exercises in the ascending scale, and I prac-
tised after I came home, with the family as audience.
H. says my ear is competent only to vulgar hearing,
and I cannot appreciate nice distinctions. ... I
am sure that I shall never say that if I had been properly
educated I should have made a singer, a dancer, or a
painter — I should have failed less, perhaps, in the last.
. . . Coloring I might have been good in, for I do
think my eyes are better than those of any one I know.

" Feb. 18, 1854. If I should make out a calendar by
my feelings of fatigue, I should say there were six Sat-
urdays in the week and one Sunday.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY

29

"Mr.

somewhat ridicules my plan of reading

Milton with a view to his astronomy, but I have found
it very pleasant, and have certainly a juster idea of
Milton's variety of greatness than I had before, I have
filled several sheets with my annotations on the 'Para-
dise Lost,' which I may find useful if I should ever
be obliged to teach, either as a schooUna'ain or a
lecturer.^

"March '2, 1854. I * swept' last night two hours,
by three periods. It was a grand night — not a breath
of air, not a fringe of a cloud, all clear, all beautiful. I
really enjoy that kind of work, but my back soon be-
comes tired, long before the cold chills me. I saw two
nebulse in Leo with which I was not faixiiliar, and that
repaid me for the time. I am always the better for
open-air breathing, and was certainly meant for the
wandering life of the Indian.

"Sept. 12, 1854. I am just through with a summer,
and a summer is to me always a trying ordeal. I have
determined not to spend so much time at the Athe-
neum another season, but to put some one in my place
who shall see the strange faces and hear the strange talk.

" How much talk there is about religion ! Giles ^ I
like the best, for he seems, like myself, to have no set-
tled views, and to be religious only in feeling. He says
he has no piety, but a great sense of infinity.

"Yesterday I had a Shaker visitor, and: to-day a
Catholic ; and the more I see and hear, the less do I

^ This paper has been printed since Miss MitchelFs death in *' Poet-lore/'
June-July, 1894.
* Rev. Henry Giles.

30 MARIA MITCHELL

care about church doctrines. The Catholic, a priest, I
have known as an Atheneum visitor for some time. He
talked to-day, on my asking him some questions, and
talked better than I expected. He is plainly full of
intelligence, full of enthusiasm for his religion, and,
I suspect, full of bigotry. I do not believe he will die
a Catholic priest. A young man of his temperament
must find it hard to live without family ties, and I shall
expect to hear, if I ever hear of him again, that some
good little Irish girl has made him forget his vows.

" My visitors, in other respects, have been of the aver-
age sort. Four women have been delighted to make
my acquaintance — three men have thought them-
selves in the presence of a superior being ; one offered
me twenty-five cents because I reached him the key of
the museum. One woman has opened a correspond-
ence with me, and several have told me that they knew
friends of mine ; two have spoken of me in small let-
ters to small newspapers ; one said he didn't see me,
and one said he did ! I have become hardened to all ;
neither compliment nor quarter-dollar rouses any emo-
tion. My fit of humility, which has troubled me all
summer, is shaken, however, by the first cool breeze of
autumn and the first walk taken without perspiration.

"Sept. 22, 1854. On the evening of the i8th, while
* sweeping,* there came into the field the two nebulae
in Ursa Major, which I have known for many a year,
but which to my surprise now appeared to be three.
The upper one, as seen from an inverting telescope,
appeared double-headed, like one near the Dolphin,
but much more decided than that, the space between the

^^^^■■^a^

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 31

two heads being very plainly discernible and subtend-
ing a decided angle. The bright part of this object
was clearly the old nebula — but what was the append-
age ? Had the nebula suddenly changed ? Was it a
comet, or was it merely a very fine night? Father
decided at once for the comet; I hesitated, with my
usual cowardice, and forbade his giving it a notice in
the newspaper.

"I watched it from 8.30 to 11.30 almost without
cessation, and was quite sure at 11.30 that its position
had changed with regard to the neighboring stars. I
counted its distance from the known nebula several
times, but the whole affair was difficult, for there were
flying clouds, and sometimes the nebula and comet
were too indistinct to be definitely seen.

"The 19th was cloudy and the 20th the same, with
the variety of occasional breaks, through which I saw
the nebula, but not the comet.

" On the 2 1st came a circular, and behold Mr. Van
Arsdale had seen it on the 13th, but had not been sure
of it until the iSth, on account of the clouds.

" I was too well pleased with having really made the
discovery to care because I was not first.

" Let the Dutchman have the reward of his sturdier
frame and steadier nerves !

" Especially could I be a Christian because the 13th
was cloudy, and more especially because I dreaded the
responsibility of making the computations, nolens
volenSy which I must have done to be able to call it
mine. .

" I made observations for three hours last night, and

32 MARIA MITCHELL

am almost ill to-day from fatigue; still I have worked
all day, tiryfng to i-eduee the places, and mean to work
hard again to-night.

"Sept. 2^, 1854. I began ta recompute for the
comet, with observations of Cambridge and Washington,
to-day. I have had a fit of despondency in consequence
of being obliged to renounce my own observations as
too rough for use. The best that can be said of my
life so far is> that it has been industrious, and the best
that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to
what I was not.

"October lo, As^ soon as I had run through the
computations roughly for the comet, so as to make up
my mind that hy my own observations (which were
very wrong) the Perihelion was passed, and nothing
more to be hoped for from observations, I seized upon a
pleasant day and went to the Cape for an excursion.
We went to Yarmouth, Sandwich, and Plymouth, enjoy-
ing the novelty of the new car-^route. It really seemed
like railway travelling on our own island, so much sand
and so flat a country,

** The iittle towns, too, seemed quaint and odd, and
the old gray cottages looked as if they belonged to the
last century,- and were waked from a long nap by the
railway whistle.

" I thought Sandwich a beautiful, and Plymouth an
interesting, town. I would fain have gone off into some
poetical quotation, such as * The breaking waves dashed
high' or *The Pilgrim fathers, where are they?' but
K., who had been there before, desired me not to be
absurd, but to step quietly on to the half-buried rock

-J'

I

-I

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 33

and quietly bit Younger sisters know a deal, so I did
as I was bidden to do, and it was just as well not to
make myself hoarse without an appreciative audience.

** I liked the picture by Sargent in Pilgrim Hall, but
seeing Plymouth on a mild, sunny day, with everything
looking bright and pleasant, it was difficult to conceive
of the landing of the Pilgrims as an event, or that the
settling of such a charming spot required any heroism.

" The picture, of course, represents the dreariness of
winter, and my feelings were moved by the chilled
appearance of the little children, and the pathetic
countenance of little Peregrine White, who, considering
that he was born in the harbor, is wonderfully grown
up before they are welcomed by Samoset According
to history little Peregrine was born about December 6
and Samoset met them about March 16; so he was
three months old, but he is plainly a forward child, for
he looks up very knowingly. Such a child had immor-
tality thrust upon him from his birth. It must have had
a deadening influence upon him to know that he was a
marked man whether he did anything worthy of mark
or not. He does not seem to have made any figure
after his entrance into the world, though he must have
created a great sensation when he came.

" October 17. I have just gone over my comet com-
putations again, and it is humiliating to perceive how
very little more I know than I did seven years ago
when I first did this kind of work. To be sure, I have
only once in the time computed a parabolic orbit ; but
it seems to me that I know no more in general. I think
I am a little better thinker, that I take things less upon

34 MARIA MITCHELL

trust, but at the same time I trust myself much less.
The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul
is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain
every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that
hides the infinite from us.

"Will it really unroll to us at some future time?
Aside from the gratification of the affections in another
world, that of the intellect must be great if it is enlarged
and its desires are the same.

"Nov. 24, 1854. Yesterday James Freeman Clarke,
the biographer of Margaret Fuller, came into the
Atheneum. It was plain that he came to see me and
not the institution. . . . He rushed into talk at
once, mostly on people, and asked me about my astro-
nomical labors. As it was a kind of flattery, I repaid it
in kind by asking him about Margaret Fuller. He said
she did not strike any one as a person of intellect or as
a student, for all her faculties were kept so much abreast
that none had prominence. I wanted to ask if she was
a lovable person, but I did not think he would be an
unbiassed judge, she was so much attached to him.

"Dec. 5, 1854. The love of one's own sex is
precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor re-
tained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere. I am
grateful that I have had much of this in my life.

" The comet looked in upon us on the 29th. It made
a twilight call, looking sunny and bright, as if it had
just warmed itself in the equinoctial rays. A boy on
the street called my attention to it, but I found on
hurrying home that father had already seen it, and had
ranged it behind buildings so as to get a rough position.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY

35

" It was piping cold, but we went to work in good
earnest that night, and the next night on which we
could see it, which was not until April.

** I was dreadfully busy, and a host of little annoyances
crowded upon me. I had a good star near it in the
field of my comet-seeker, but what star?

" On that rested everything, and I could not be sure
even from the catalogue, for the comet and the star
were so much in the twilight that I could get no good
neighboring stars. We called it % Arietes, or 707.

" Then came a waxing moon, and we waxed weary in
trying to trace the fainter and fainter comet in the mists
of twilight and the glare of moonlight.

** Next I broke a screw of my instrument, and found
that no screw of that description could be bought in the
town.

" I started oflf to find a man who could make one,
and engaged him to do so the next day. The next
day was Fast Day; all the world fasted, at least from
labor.

" However, the screw was made, and it fitted nicely.
The clouds cleared, and we were likely to have a good
night. I put up my instrument, but scarcely had the
screw-driver touched the new screw than out it flew
from its socket, rolled along the floor of the 'walk,'
dropped quietly through a crack into the gutter of the
house-roof. I heard it click, and felt very much like
using language unbecoming to a woman's mouth.

" I put my eye down to the crack, but could not see it.
There was but one thing to be done, — the floor-boards
must come up. I got a hatchet, but could do nothing.

36 MARIA MITCHELL

I called father; he brought a crowbar and pried up the
board, then crawled under it and found the screw. I
took good care not to lose it a second time.

'* The instrument was fairly mounted when the clouds
mounted to keep it company, and the comet and I
again parted.

** In all observations, the blowing out of a light by a
gust of wind is a very common and very annoying
accident ; but I once met with a much worse one, for I
dropped a chronometer, and it rolled out of its box on
to the ground. We picked it up in a great panic, but
it had not even altered its rate, as we found by later
observations.

" The glaring eyes of the cat, who nightly visited me,
were at one time very annoying, and a man who
climbed up a fence and spoke to me, in the stillness of
the small hours, fairly shook not only my equanimity,
but the pencil which I held in my hand. He was
quite innocent of any intention to do me harm, but he
gave me a great fright.

" The spiders and bugs which swarm in my observing-

houses I have rather an attachment for, but they must

not crawl over my recording-paper. Rats are my

abhorrence, and I learned with pleasure that some

.poison had been placed under the transit-house.

" One gets attached (if the term may be used) to cer-
tain midnight apparitions. The Aurora Borealis is
always a pleasant companion ; a meteor seems to come
like a messenger from departed spirits; and the blos-
soming of trees in the moonlight becomes a sight looked
for with pleasure.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 37

•* Aside from the study of astronomy, there is the
same enjoyment in a night upon the housetop, with the
stars, as in the midst of other grand scenery; there is
the same subdued quiet and grateful seriousness ; a
calm to the troubled spirit, and a hope to the de-
sponding.

" Even astronomers who are as well cared for as are
those of Cambridge have their annoyances, and even
men as skilled as they are make blunders.

" I have known one of the Bonds,^ with great effort,
turn that huge telescope down to the horizon to make
an observation upon a blazing comet seen there, and
when he had found it in his glass, find also that it
was not a comet, but the nebula of Andromeda, a
cluster of stars on which he had spent much time, and
which he had made a special object of study.

** Dec. 26, 1854. They were wonderful men, the early
astronomers. That was a great conception, which now
seems to us so simple, that the earth turns upon its
axis, and a still greater one that it revolves about the
sun (to show this last was worth a man's lifetime, and
it really almost cost the life of Galileo). Somehow we
are ready to think that they had a wider field than
we for speculation, that truth being all unknown it
was easier to take the first step in its paths. But is
the region of truth limited? Is it not infinite? . . .
We know a few things which were once hidden, and
being known they seem easy ; but there are the flash-
ings of the Northern Lights — 'Across the lift they
start and shift;' there is the con'cal zodiacal beam

*0f the Harvard College Observatory,

38

MARIA MITCHELL

seen so beautifully in the early evenings of spring and
the early mornings of autumn ; there are the startling
comets, whose use is all unknown; there are the
brightening and flickering variable stars, whose cause is
all unknown; and the meteoric showers — aad for all
of these the reasons are as clear as for the succession
of day and night; they lie just beyond the daily
mist of our minds, but our eyes have not yet pierced
through it.'*

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 39

CHAPTER III

1855-1857

EXTRACTS FROM DIARY RACHEL — EMERSON — A HARD

WINTER

"Jan. I, 1855. I P^^ some wires into my little transit
this morning. I dreaded it so much, when I found yes-
terday that it must be done, that it disturbed my sleep.
It was much easier than I expected. I took out the
little collimating screws first, then I drew out the tube,
and in that I found a brass plate screwed on the dia-
phragm which contained the lines. I was at first a
little puzzled to know which screws held this diaphragm
in its place, and, as I was very anxious not to unscrew
the wrong ones, I took time to consider and found I
need turn only two. Then out slipped the little plate
with its three wires where five should have been, two
having been broken. As I did not know how to man-
age a spider's web, I took the hairs from my own head,
taking care to pick out white ones because I have no
black ones to spare. I put in the two, after first stretching
them over pasteboard, by sticking them with sealing-
wax dissolved in alcohol into the little grooved lines
which I found. When I had, with great labor, adjusted
these, as I thought, firmly, I perceived that some of the
wax was on the hairs and would make them yet coarser,
and they were already too coarse ; so I washed my little

40 MARIA MITCHEM.

camers-hair brush which I had been using, and began
to wash them with clear alcohol. Almost at once I
washed out another wire and soon another and another.
I went to work patiently and put in the five perpendic-
ular ones besides the horizontal one, which, like the
others, had frizzled up and appeared to melt away.
With another hour's labor I got in the five, when a rude
motion raised them all again and I began over. Just at
one o'clock I had got them all in again. I attempted
then to put the diaphragm back into its place. The
sealing-wax was not dry, and with a little jar I sent the
wires all agog. This time they did not come out of
the little grooved lines into which they were put, and I
hastened to take out the brass plate and set them in
parallel lines. I gave up then for the day, but, as they
looked well and were certainly in firmly, I did not con-
sider that I had made an entire failure. I thought it
nice ladylike work to manage such slight threads and
turn such delicate screws ; but fine as are the hairs of
one's head, I shall seek something finer, for I can see
how clumsy they will appear when I get on the eyepiece
and magnify their imperfections. They look parallel now
to the eye, but with a magnifying power a very little
crook will seem a billowy wave, and a faint star will hide
itself in one of the yawning abysses.

" Januarj' 15. Finding the hairs which I had put into
my instrument not only too coarse, but variable and
disposed to curl themselves up at a change of weather,
I wrote to George Bond to ask him how I should pro-
cure spider lines. He replied that the web from
cocoons should be used, and that I should find it

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY

41

difficult at this time of year to get at them. I remem-?
bered at once that I had seen two in the library room
of the Atheneum, which I had carefully refrained from
disturbing. I found them perfect, and unrolled them.
. . . Fearing that I might not succeed in managing
them, I procured some hairs from C/s head. C. being
not quite a year old, his hair is remarkably fine and
sufficiently long. ... I made the perpendicular
wires of the spider's webs, breaking them and doing the
work over again a great many times. ... I at
length got all in, crossing the five perpendicular ones
with a horizontal one from C.'s spinning-wheel. . . .
After twenty-four hours' exposure to the weather, I
looked at them. The spider-webs had not changed,
they were plainly used to a chill and made to endure
changes of temperature ; but C.'s hair, which had never
felt a cold greater than that of the nursery, nor a change
more decided than from his mother's arms to his
father's, had knotted up into a decided curl 1 r— N,B. C.
may expect ringlets.

"January 22. Horace Greeley, in an article in a
recent number of the * Tribune,* says that the fund left
by Smithson is spent by the regents of that institution
in publishing books which no publisher would under-
take and which do no good to anybody. Now in our
little town of Nantucket, with our little Atheneum,
these volumes are in constant demand. . ...

** I do not suppose that such works as those issued
by the Smithsonian regents are appreciated by. all who
turn them over, but the ignorant learn that, such things
exist; they perceive that a, higher cultivation than

42 MARIA MITCHELL

theirs is in the* world, and they are stimulated to strive
after greater excellence. So I steadily advocate, in
purchasing books for the Atheneum, the lifting of the
people. 'Let us buy, not such books as the people
want, but books just above their wants, and they will
reach up to take what is put out for them.'

"Sept. lO, 1855. To know what one ought to do is
certainly the hardest thing in life. ' Doing ' is com-
paratively easy ; but there are no laws for your indi-
vidual case — yours is one of a myriad.

** There are laws of right and wrong in general, but
they do not seem to bear upon any particular case.

" In chess-playing you can refer to rules of movement,
for the chess-men are few, and the positions in which
they may be placed, numerous as they are, have a
limit.

** But is there any limit to the different positions of
human beings around you? Is there any limit to the
peculiarities of circumstances?

" Here a man, however much of a copyist he may be
by nature, comes down to simple originality, unless he
blindly follows the advice of some friend ; for there is
no precedent in anything exactly like his case; he
must decide for himself, and must take the step alone ;
and fearfully, cautiously, and distrustingly must we all
take many of our steps, for we see but a little way at
best, and we can foresee nothing at all.

"September 13. I read this morning an article in
* Putnam's Magazine,* on Rachel. I have been much
interested in this woman as a genius, though I am pained
by the accounts of her career in point of morals, and I

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 43

am wearied with the glitter of her jewelry. Night puts
on a jewelled robe which few admire, compared with
the admiration for marketable jewelry. The New York
* Tribune * descends to the rating of the value of those
worn by her, and it is the prominent point, or rather
it makes the multitude of prominent points, when she is
spoken of.

" The writer in * Putnam * does not go into these
small matters, but he attempts a criticism on acting, to
which I am not entirely a convert. He maintains that
if an actor should really show a character in such light
that we could not tell the impersonation from the
reality, the stage would lose its interest. I do not
think so. We should draw back, of course, from physi-
cal suffering ; but yet we should be charmed to suppose
anything real, which we had desired to see. If we felt
that we really met Cardinal Wolsey or Henry VIII. in
his days of glory, would it not be a lifelong memory
to us, very different from the effect of the stage, and if
for a few moments we really y^// that we had met them,
would it not lift us into a new kind of being?

" What would we not give to see Julius Caesar and the
soothsayer, just as they stood in Rome as Shakspere
represents them? Why, we travel hundreds of miles
to see the places noted for the doings of these old
Romans ; and if we could be made to believe that we
met one of the smaller men, even, of that day, our
ecstasy would be unbounded. * A tin pan so painted
as to deceive is atrocious,' says this writer. Of course,
for we are not interested in a tin pan ; but give us a
portrait of Shakspere or Milton so that we shall feel

44 MARIA MITCHELL

that we have met them, and I see no atrocity in the
matter. We honor the homes of these men, and we joy
in the hope of seeing them. What would be beyond
seeing them in life?

** October 31. I saw Rachel in *Phedre' and in
** Adrienne.' I had previously asked a friend if I, in my
ignorance of acting, and in my inability to tell good
from poor, should really perceive a marked difference
between Rachel and her aids. She thought I should.
I did indeed ! In * Phedre,* which I first saw, she was
not aided at all by her troupe ; they were evidently ill
at ease in the Greek dress and in Greek manners;
while she had assimilated herself to the whole. It is
founded on the play of Euripides, and even to Rachel
the passion which she represents as Phedre must have
been too strange to be natural. Hippolytus refuses
the love which Phedre offers after a long struggle with
herself, and this gives cause for the violent bursts in
which Rachel shows her power. It was an outburst of
passion of which I have no conception, and I felt as if
I saw a new order of being ; not a woman, but a per-
sonified passion. The vehemence and strength were
wonderful. It was in parts very touching. There
was as fine an opportunity for Aricia to show some
power as for Phedre, but the automaton who repre-
sented Aricia had no power to show. CEnon, whom
I took to be the sister Sarah, was something of an
actress, but her part was so hateful that no one could
applaud her. I felt in reading ' Phedre,* and in hear-
ing it, that it was a play of high order, and that I
learned some little philosophy from some of its senti-

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 45

ments ; but for * Adrienne * I have a contempt. The
play was written by Scribe specially for Rachel, and
the French acting was better done by the other per-
formers than the Greek. I have always dislikedvto see
death represented on the stage. Rachel's representa-
tion was awful ! I could not take my eyes from the
scene, and I held my breath in horror ; the death was
so much to the life. It is said that she changes color.
I do not know that she does, but it looked like a
ghastly hue that came .over her pale face.

" I was displeased at the constant standing. Neither
as Greeks nor as Frenchmen did they sit at all ; only
when dying did Rachel need a chair. They made love
standing, they told long stories standing, they took
snuff in that position, hat in hand, and Rachel fainted
upon the breast of some friend from the same fatiguing
attitude.

" The audience to hear * Adrienne ' was very fine.
The Unitarian clergymen and the divinity students
seemed to have turned out.

" Most of the two thousand listeners followed with the
book, and when the last word was uttered on the French
page, over turned the two thousand leaves, sounding
like a shower of rain. The applause was never very
great; it is said that Rachel feels this as a Boston
peculiarity, but she ought also to feel the compliment
of so large an ciudience in a city where foreigners are so
few and the population so small compared to that of
New York.

"Nov. 14, 1855. Last night I heard Emerson give a
lecture. I pity the reporter who attempts to give it to

46 MARIA MITCHELL

the world. I began to listen with a determination to
remember it in order, but it was without method, or
order, or system. It was like a beam of light moving in
the undulatory waves, meeting with occasional meteors
in its path; it was exceedingly captivating. It sur-
prised me that there was not only no commonplace
thought, but there was no commonplace expression.
If he quoted, he quoted from what we had not read ;
if he told an anecdote, it was one that had not
reached us. At the outset he was very severe upon the
science of the age. He said that inventors and dis-
coverers helped themselves very much, but they did not
help the rest of the world ; that a great man was felt to
the centre of the Copernican system ; that a botanist
dried his plants, but the plants had their revenge and
dried the botanist; that a naturalist bottled up reptiles,
but in return the man was bottled up.

" There was a pitiful truth in all this, but there are
glorious exceptions. Professor Peirce is anything but
a formula, though he deals in formulae.

" The lecture turned at length upon beauty, and it was
evident that personal beauty had made Emerson its
slave many a time, and I suppose every heart in the
house admitted the truth of his words. . . .

*' It was evident that Mr. Emerson was not at ease, for
he declared that good manners were more than beauty
of face, and good expression better than good features.
He mentioned that Sir Philip Sydney was not handsome,
though the boast of English society ; and he spoke of
the astonishing beauty of the Duchess of Hamilton, to
see whom hundreds collected when she took a ride. I

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY

47

think in these cases there is something besides beauty ;
there was rank in that of the Duchess, in the case of
Sydney there was no need of beauty at all.

" Dec. 1 6, 1855. All along this year I have fejt that it
was a hard year — the hardest of my life. And I have
kept enumerating to myself my many trials ; to-day it
suddenly occurred to me that my blessings were much
more numerous. If mother's illness was a sore afflic-
tion, her recovery is a great blessing; and even the
illness itself has its bright side, for we have joyed in
showing her how much we prize her continued life. If I
have lost some friends by death, I have not lost all. If
I have worked harder than I felt that I could bear, how
much better is that than not to have as much work as I
wanted to do. I have earned more money than in any
preceding year ; I have studied less, but have observed
more, than I did last year. I have saved more money
than ever before, hoping for Europe in 1856." . . .

Miss Mitchell from her earliest childhood had had a
great desire to travel in Europe. She received a very
small salary for her services in the Atheneum, but small
as it was she laid by a little every year.

She dressed very simply and spent as little as possi-
ble on herself — which was also true of her later years.
She took a little journey every year, and could always
have little presents ready for the birthdays and Christ-
mas days, and for the necessary books which could not
be found in the Atheneum library, and which she felt
that she ought to own herself, — all this on a salary
which an ordinary school-girl in these days would
think too meagre to supply her with dress alone.

48 MARIA MITCHELL

In this family the children were not ashamed to say,
" I can't afford it," and were taught that nothing was
cheap that they could not pay for — a lesson that has
been valuable to them all their lives.

"... 1855. DeaconGreeley, of Boston, urged my
going to Boston and giving some lectures to get money.
I told him I could not think of it just now, as I wanted
to go to Europe. ' On what money? * said he. ' What
I have earned,' I replied. ' Bless me ! * said he ; ' am
I talking to a capitalist? What a mistake I have
made.' "

During the time of the prosperity of the town, the
winters were very sociable and lively; but when the
inhabitants began to leave for more favorable oppor-
tunities for getting a livelihood, the change was felt
very seriously, especially in the case of an exceptionally
stormy winter. Here is an extract showing how Miss
Mitchell and her family lived during one of these
winters :

"Jan. 22, 1857. Hard winters are becoming the
order of things. Winter before last was hard, last
winter was harder, and this surpasses all winters known
before.

" We have been frozen into our island now since the
6th. No one cared much about it for the first two or
three days ; the sleighing was good, and all the world
was out trying their horses on Main street — the race-
course of the world. Day after day passed, and the
thermometer sank to a lower point, and the winds
rose to a higher, and sleighing became uncomfortable ;
and even the dullest man longs for the cheer of a

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 49

newspaper. The * Nantucket Inquirer ' came out for
awhile, but at length it had nothing to tell and noth-
ing to inquire about, and so kept its peace,

" After about a week a vessel was seen off Siasconset,
and boarded by a pilot. Her captain said he would go
anywhere and take anybody, as all he wanted was a
harbor. Two men whose business would suffer if they
remained at home took passage in her, and with the
pilot, Patterson, she left in good weather and was seen
off Chatham at night. It was hoped that Patterson
would return and bring at least a few newspapers, but
no more is known of them. Our postmaster thought
he was not allowed to send the mails by such a con-
veyance.

" Yesterday we got up quite an excitement because
a large steamship was seen near the Haul-over. She
set a flag for a pilot, and was boarded. It was found
that she was out of course, twenty days from Glasgow,
bound to New York. " What the European news is
we do not yet know, but it is plain that we are nearer
to Europe than to Hyannis. Christians as we are, I am
afraid we were all sorry that she did not come ashore.
We women revelled in the idea of the rich silks she
would probably throw upon the beach, and the men
thought a good job would be made by steamboat com-
panies and wreck agents.

" Last night the weather was so mild that a plan was
made for cutting out the steamboat ; all the Irishmen in
town were ordered to be on the harbor with axes,
shovels, and saws at seven this morning. The poor
fellows were exulting in the prospect of a job, but they

50 MARIA MITCHELL

are sadly balked, for this morning at seven a hard
storm was raging — snow and a good north-west wind.
What has become of the English steamer no one knows,
but the wind blows off shore, so she will not come any
nearer to us.

" Inside of the house we amuse ourselves in various
ways. F.'s family and ours form a club meeting three
times a week, and writing * machine poetry ' in great
quantities. Occasionally something very droll puts us
in a roar of laughter. F., E., and K. are, I think,
rather the smartest, though Mr. M. has written rather
the best of all. At the next nieeting, each of us is to
produce a sonnet on a subject which we draw by lot.
I have written mine and tried to be droll. K. has writ-
ten hers and is serious.

** I am sadly tried by this state of things. I cannot
hear from Cambridge (the Nautical Almanac office),
and am out of work; it is cloudy most of the time, and
I cannot observe; and I had fixed upon just this time
for taking a journey. My trunk has been half packed
for a month.

" January 23. Foreseeing that the thermometer would
show a very low point last night, we sat up until near
midnight, when it stood one and one-half below zero.
The stars shone brightly, and the wind blew freshly
from west north-west.

" This morning the wind is the same, and the mer-
cury stood at six and one-half below zero at seven
o'clock, and now at ten A.M. is not above zero. The
Coffin School dismissed its scholars. Miss F. suffered
much from the exposure on her way to school.

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 51

" The * Inquirer * came out this morning, giving the
news from Europe brought by the steamer which lies
off 'Sconset. No coal has yet been carried to the
steamer, the carts which started for 'Sconset being
obliged to return.

** There are about seven hundred barrels of flour ir*
town ; it is admitted that fresh meat is getting scarce ;
the streets are almost impassable from the snow-drifts.

" K. and I have hit upon a plan for killing time.
We are learning poetry — she takes twenty lines of
Goldsmith's * Traveller,* and I twenty lines of the
' Deserted Village.' It will take us twenty days to
learn the whole, and we hope to be stopped in our
course by the opening of the harbor. Considering that
K. has a fiance from whom she cannot hear a word, she
carries herself very amicably towards mankind. She is
making herself a pair of shoes, which look very well ;
I have made myself a morning-dress since we were
closed in.

" Last night I took my first lesson in whist-playing.
I learned in one evening to know the king, queen, and
jack apart, and to understand what my partner meant
when she winked at me.

** The worst of this condition of things is that we
shall bear the marks of it all our lives. We are now
sixteen daily papers behind the rest of the world, and
in those sixteen papers are items known to all the
people in all the cities, which will never be known to
us. How prices have fluctuated in that time we shall
not know — what houses have burned down, what rob-
beries have been committed. When the papers do

52 MARIA MITCHELL

come, each of us will rush for the latest dates ; the news
of two weeks ago is now history, and no one reads his-
tory, especially the history of one's own country.

" I bought a copy of * Aurora Leigh ' just before
the freezing up, and I have been careful, as it is the
only copy on the island, to circulate it freely. It must
have been a pleasant visitor in the four or five house-
holds which it has entered. We have had Dr. Kane's
book and now have the 'Japan Expedition.*

" The intellectual suffering will, I think, be all. I
have no fear of scarcity of provisions or fuel. There
are old houses enough to burn. Fresh meat is rather
scarce because the English steamer required so much
victualling. We have a barrel of pork and a barrel of
flour in the house, and father has chickens enough to
keep us a good while.

"There are said to be some families who are in a
good deal of suffering, for whom the Howard Society is
on the lookout. Mother gives very freely to Bridget,
who has four children to support with only the labor of
her hands.

" The Coffin School has been suspended one day on
account of the heaviest storm, and the Unitarian church
has had but one service. No great damage has been
done by the gales. My observing-seat came thunder-
ing down the roof one evening about ten o'clock, but
all the world understpod its cry of * Stand from
under,' and no one was hurt. Several windows were
blown in at midnight, and houses shook so that vases
fell from the mantelpieces.

"The last snow drifted so that the sleighing was

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY 53

difficult, and at present the storm is so smothering that
few are out. A. has been out to school every day, and
I have not failed to go out into the air once a day to
take a short walk.

** January 24. We left the mercury one below zero
when we went to bed last night, and it was at zero when
we rose this morning. But it rises rapidly, and now, at
eleven A.M., it is as high as fifteen. The weather is still
and beautiful ; the English steamer is still safe at her
moorings.

" Our little club met last night, each with a sonnet.
I did the best I could with a very bad subject. K. and
E. rather carried the honors away, but Mr. J. M.*s was
very taking. Our * crambo ' playing was rather dull,
all of us having exhausted ourselves on the sonnets.
We seem to have settled ourselves quietly into a tone
of resignation in regard to the weather ; we know that
we cannot * get out,* any more than Sterne's Starling,
and we know that it is best not to fret.

" The subject which I have drawn for the next poem
is ' Sunrise/ about which I know very little. K. and I
continue to learn twenty lines of poetry a day, and I do
not find it unpleasant, though the * Deserted Village '
is rather monotonous.

" We hear of no suffering in town for fuel or provis^
ions, and I think we could stand a three months* siege
without much inconvenience as far as the physicals are
concerned.

** January 26. The ice continues, and the cold. The
weather is beautiful, and with the thermometer at four-
teen I swept with the telescope an hour and a half last

54 MARIA MITCHELL

night, comfortably. The English steamer will get off
to-morrow. It is said that they burned their cabin
doors last night to keep their water hot. Many people
go out to see her ; she lies off *Sconset, about half a
mile from shore. We have sent letters by her which,
I hope, may relieve anxiety.

" K. bought a backgammon board to-day. Clifford
[the little nephew] came in and spent the morning.

** January 29. We have had now two days of warm
weather, but there is yet no hope of getting our steam-
boat off. Day before yesterday we went to 'Sconset to
see the English steamer. She lay so near the shore
that we could hear the orders given, and see the people
on board. When we went down the bank the boats
were just pushing from the shore, with bags of coal.
They could not go directly to the ship, but rowed some
distance along shore to the north, and then falling into
the ice drifted with it back to the ship. When they
reached her a rope was thrown to them, and they made
fast and the coal was raised. We watched them
through a glass, and saw a woman leaning over the
side of the ship. The steamer left at five o'clock that
day.

" It was worth the trouble of a ride to 'Sconset to see
the masses of snow on the road. The road had been
cleared for the coal-carts, and we drove through a nar-
row path, cut in deep snow-banks far above our heads,
sometimes for the length of three or four sleighs. We
could not, of course, turn out for other sleighs, and
there was much waiting on this account. Then, too,
the road was much gullied, and we rocked in the sleigh

EXTRACTS FROM HER DIARY

55

as we would on shipboard, with the bounding over
hillocks of snow and ice.

" Now, all is changed : the roads are slushy, and the
water stands in deep pools all over the streets. There
is a dense fog, very little wind, and that from the east.
The thermometer above thirty-six.

'' [Mails arrived February 3, and our steamboat left
February 5.] "

56

MARIA MITCHELL

CHAPTER IV

1867

SOUTHERN TOUR

In 1857 Miss Mitchell made a tour in the South,
having under her charge the young daughter of a
Western banker.

"March 2, 1857. I left MeadviUe this morning at six
o'clock, in a stage-coach for Erie. I had, early in life,
a love for staging, but it is fast dying out. Nine hours
over a rough road are enough to root out the most
passionate love of that kind.

" Our stage was well filled, but in spite of the solid
base we occasionally found ourselves bumping up
against the roof or falling forward upon our opposite
neighbors.

" Stage-coaches are, I believe, always the arena for
political debate. To-day we were all on one side, all
Buchanan men, and yet all anti-slavery. It seemed
reasonable, as they said, that the South should cease to
push the slave question in regard to Kansas, now that it
has elected its President.

" When I took the stage out to MeadviUe on the
* mud-road/ it was filled with Fremont men, and they
seemed to me more able men, though they were no
younger and no more cultivated.

" March 5. I believe any one might travel from

SOUTHERN TOUR 57

Maine to Georgia and be perfectly ignorant of the
route, and yet be well taken care of, mainly from the
good-nature in every one.

" I found from Nantucket to Chicago more attention
than I desired. I had a short seat in one of the cars,
through the night. I did not think it large enough for
two, and so coiled myself up and went to sleep. There
were men standing all around. Once one of them came
along and said something about there being room for
him on my seat. Another man said, ' She's asleep,
don't disturb her.' I was too selfish to offer the half
of a short seat, and too tired to reason about the man's
being, possibly, more tired than I.

" I was invariably offered the seat near the window that
I might lean against the side of the car, and one gentle-
man threw his shawl across my knees to keep me warm
(I was suffering with heat at the time !). Another, see-
ing me going to Chicago alone, warned me to beware
of the impositions of hack-drivers; telling me that I
must pay two dollars if I did not make a bargain be-
forehand. I found it true, for I paid one dollar for
going a few steps only.

" One peculiarity in travelling from East to West is, that
you lose the old men. In the cars in New England you
see white-headed men, and I kept one in the train up to
New York, and one of grayish-tinted hair as far as Erie ;
but after Cleveland, no man was over forty years old.

"For hundreds of miles the prairie land stretches
on the Illinois Central Railroad between Chicago and
St. Louis. It may be pleasant in summer, but it is a
dreary waste in winter. The space is too broad and

58 MARIA MITCHELL

too uniform to have beauty. The girdle of trees would
be pretty, doubtless, if seen near, but in the distance
and in winter it is only a black border to a brown plain.

"The State of Illinois must be capitally adapted to
railroads on account of this level, and but little danger
can threaten a train from running off of the track, as it
might run on the soil nearly as well as on the rails.

** Our engine was uncoupled, and had gone on for
nearly half a mile without the cars before the conductor
perceived it.

" The time from Chicago to St. Louis is called fifteen
hours and a quarter ; we made it twenty-three.

" If the prairie land is good farming-land, Illinois is
destined to be a great State. If its people will think
less of the dollar and more of the refinements of social
life and the culture of the mind, it may become the
great State of the Union yet.

"March 12. Planter's Hotel, St. Louis. We visited
Mercantile Hall and the Library. The lecture- room is
very spacious and very pretty. No gallery hides the
frescoed walls, and no painful economy has been made
of the space on the floor.

" 13th. I begin to perceive the commerce of St.
Louis. We went upon the levee this morning, and for
miles the edge was bordered with the pipes of steam-
boats, standing like ^, picket-fence. Then we came to
the wholesale streets, and saw the immense stores for
dry-goods and crockery.

" To-day I have heard of a scientific association
called the * Scientific Academy of St. Louis,' which is
about a year old, and which is about to publish a volume

SOUTHERN' TOUR 59

of transactions, containing an account of an artesian well,
and of some inscriptions just sent home from Nineveh,,
which Mr. Gust. Seyffarth has deciphered.

** Mr. Seyffarth must be a remarkable man ; he has
translated a great many inscriptions, and is said to
surpass Champollion. He has published a work on
Egyptian astronomy, but no copy is in this country.

** Dr. Pope, who called on me, and with whom I was
much pleased, told me of all these things. Western
men are so proud of their cities that they spare no»
pains to make a person frcrm the Eastern States under-
stand the resources, and hopes, and plans of their part
of the land.

** Rev. Dr. Eliot I have not seen. He is about to estab>-
lish a university here, for which he has already $ 1 00,000,
and the academic part is already in a state of activity.

" Rev. Mr. Staples tells me that Dr. Eliot puts his
hands into the pockets of his parishioners, who are rich,
up to the elbows.

"Altogether, St. Louis is a growing place, and the
West has a large hand and a strong grasp.

** Doctor Seyffarth is a man of more than sixty years,
gray-haired, healthy-looking, and pleasant in manners.
He has spent long years of labor in deciphering the
inscriptions found upon ancient pillars, Egpytian and
Arabic, dating five thousand years before Christ. I
asked him if he found the observations continuous, and
he said that he did not, but that they seem to be
astrological pictures of the configuration of the planets,
and to have been made at the birth of princes.

" He has just been reading the slabs sent from Nine-

6o MARIA MITCHELL

veh by Mr. Marsh ; their date is only about five hun-
dred years B.C.

" Mr. Seyffarth's published works amount to seventy,
and he was surprised to find a whole set of them in the
Astor Library in New York.

"March 19. We came on board of the steamer
* Magnolia/ this morning, in great spirits. We were a
little late« and Miss S, rushed on board as if she had
only New Orleans in view. I followed a little more
slowly, and the brigadier^general came after, in a sober
and dignified manner.

u \f^Q were scarcely on board when the plank was
pulled in, and a few minutes passed and we were afloat
on the Mississippi river. Miss S, and myself were the
only lady passengers; we had, therefore, the whole
range of staterooms from which to choose. Each
could have a stateroom to herself, and we talked in
admiration of the pleasant times we should have, watch-
ing the scenery from the stateroom windows, or from
the saloon, reading, etc.

" We started off finely. I, who had been used only
to the rough waters of the Atlantic coast, was surprised
at the steady gliding of the boat. I saw nothing of the
mingling of the waters of the Missouri and the Mis-
sissippi of which I had been told. Perhaps I needed
somebody to point out the difference.

** The two banks of the river were at first much alike,
but after a few hours the left bank became more hilly,
and at intervals presented bluffs and rocks, rude and
irregular in shape, which we imagined to be ruins of
some old castle.

SOUTHERN TOUR 6l

" At intervals, too, we passed steamers going up to
St. Louis, all laden with passengers. We exulted in oar
majestic march over the waters. I thought it the very
perfection of travelling, and wished that all my family
and all my friends were on board.

" I wondered at the stupidity of the rest of the world,
and thought that they ought all to leave the marts of
business, to step from the desk, the counting-room, and
the workshop on board the * Magnolia,* and go down
the length of the ' Father of Waters.*

" And so they would, I suppose, but for sand-bars.
Here we are five hours out, and fast aground! We
were just at dinner, the captain making himself agree-
able, the dinner showing itself to be good, when a
peculiar motion of the boat made the captain heave
a sigh — he had been heaving the lead all the
morning. 'Ah,* he said, •just what I feared; we've
got to one of those bad places, and we are rubbing the
bottom.'

" I asked very innocently if we must wait for the tide,
and was informed that there was no tide felt on this
part of the river. Miss S. turned a little pale, and
showed a loss of appetite. I was a little bit moved,
but kept it to myself and ate on.

" As soon as dinner was over, we went out to look at
the prospect of affairs. We were close into the land,
and could be put on shore any minute ; the captain
had sent round a little boat to sound the waters, and
the report brought back was of shallow water just
ahead of us, but more on the right and left.

"While we stood on deck a small boat passed, and a

62 MARIA MITCHELL

sailor very gleefully called out the soundings as he
threw the lead," * Eight and a half-nine/

" But we are still high and dry now at two o'clock
P.M. They are shaking the steamer, and making efforts
to move her. They say if she gets over this, there is
no worse place for her to meet.

" I asked the captain of what the bottom is com-
posed, and he says, * Of mud, rocks, snags, and every-
thing.'

" He is now moving very cautiously, and the boat has
an unpleasant tremulous motion.

** March 20. Latitude about thirty-eight degrees.
We are just where we stopped at noon yesterday —
there is no change, and of course no event. One of
our crew killed a 'possum yesterday, and another boat
stopped near us this morning, and seems likely to lie as
long as we do on the sand-bar.

"We read Shakspere this morning after breakfast,
and then betook ourselves to the wheel-house to look
at the scenery again. While there a little colored boy
came to us bearing a waiter of oranges, and telling us
that the captain sent them with his compliments. We
ate them greedily, because we had nothing else to do.

"2 1st. Still the sand-bar. No hope of getting off.
We heard the pilot hail a steamboat which was going
up to St. Louis, and tell them to send on a lighter,
and I suppose we must wait for that. . . . It is my
private opinion that this great boat will not get off at
all, but will lie here until she petrifies. . . .

" March 24. We left the * Magnolia 'after four days
and four hours upon the sand-bar near Turkey island,

MM

SOUTHERN TOUR 63

upon seeing the 'Woodruff* approach. We left in a
little rowboat, and it seemed at first as if we could not
overtake the steamer ; but the captain saw us and slack-
ened his speed.

" Miss S. and I clutched hands in a little terror as our
small boat seemed likely to run under the great steamer,
but our oarsmen knew their duty and we were safely
put on board of the ' Woodruff.'

"March 25. We stopped at Cairo at eight o'clock
this morning. Mr. S. went on shore and brought news-
papers on board. The Cairo paper I do not think of
high order. I saw no mention in it of the detention of
the 'Magnolia'!

" March 26. Yesterday we count as a day of events.
It began to look sunny on the banks, especially on
the Kentucky side, and Miss S. and I saw cherry-blos-
soms. We remembered the eclipse, and Mr. S. having
brought with him a piece of broken glass from one of
the windows of the ' Magnolia,' I smoked it over a
piece of candle which I had brought from Room No. 22
of the Planter's House at St. Louis, and we prepared to
see the eclipse.

" I expected to see the moon on at five o'clock and
twenty minutes, but as I had no time I could not tell
when to look for it.

" It was not on at that time by my watch, but in ten
minutes after was so far on that I think my time cannot
be much wrong.

" It was a little cloudy, so that we saw the sun only
* all flecked with bars,' and caught sight of the phe-
nomenon at intervals.

64 MARIA MITCHELL

'* We were at a coal-landing at the time, and not far
from Madrid. The boat stopped so long to take in an
immense pile of corn-bags that our passengers went on
shore — such of them as could climb the slippery
bank.

" When we saw them coming back laden with peach-
blossoms, and saw the little children dressing their hats
with them, we were seized with a longing for them, and
Mr. S. offered to go and get us some ; we begged to go
too, but he objected.

" We were really envious of his good luck when we
saw him jump into a country wagon, drawn by
oxen which trotted off like horses, and, waving his
handkerchief to us, ride off in great glee. He came
back with an armful of peach-tree branches. Whose
orchard he robbed at our instigation I cannot say. A
little girl, the daughter of the captain, pulled some
blossoms open, and showed us that the fruit germs
were not dead, but would have become peaches if we
had not coveted them.

" The 25 th was also our first night steam-boating.
After passing Cairo the river is considered safe for
night travel, and the boat started on her ws^y at 8.30
P.M. We had been out about half an hour when a
lady who was playing cards threw down her cards and
rushed with a shriek to her stateroom. I perceived
then that there had been a peculiar motion to the boat
and that it suddenly stopped. We found that one of
the paddle-wheels was caught in a snag, but there was
no harm done. It made us a little nervous, but we
slept well enough after it.

SOl/THERl/ TOUR 65

"When I look out upon the river, t wonder that boate
«% not continually snagged. Little trees are sticking
up on all sides, and sometimes we seem to be going
over a meadow and pushing among rushes.

"A yawl, which was sent out yesterday to sound, was
snagged by a stump which was high out of water;
probably they were carried on to it by a current. The
little boat whirled round and round, and the m^n were
plainly frightened^ for they dropped their oars and
clutched the sides of the boat. They got control, how-
ever, in a few minutes, and had the jeers of the men
left on the steamer for their pains.

" March 30. We stopped at Natchez before break-
fast this morning, and, having half an hour, we took a
carriage and drove through the city. It was like driv-
ing through a succession of gardens : roses were hang-
ing over the fences in the richest profusion, and the
arbor-vitae was ornamenting every little nook, and
adorning every cottage.

•* Natchez stands on a high bluff, very romantic in
appearance; jagged and rugged, as if volcanoes had
been at work in a time long past, for tall trees g^ew in
the ravines.

" Most of our lady passengers are, like ourselves, on
a tour of pleasure ; six of them go with us to the St.
Charles Hotel. Some are from Keokuk, la., and I
think I like these the best. One young lady goes
ashore to spend some time on a plantation, as a
governess. She looks feeble, and we all pity her.

" To-day we pass among plantations on both sides of
the river. We begin to see the live-oak — a noble tree.

66 MARIA MITCHELL

The foliage is so thick and dark that I have learned to
know it by its color. The magnolia trees, too, are be-
coming fragrant.

** March 3 1 . We are at length in New Orleans, and
up three flights at the St. Charles, in a dark room.

"The peculiarities of the city dawn upon me very
slowly. I first noticed the showy dress of the children*
then the turbaned heads of the black women in the
streets, and next the bouquet-selling boys with their
French phrases.

"April 3. This morning we went to a slave market.
It looked on first entrance like an intelligence office.
Men, women, and children were seated on long
benches parallel with each other. All rose at our
entrance, and continued standing while we were there.
We were told by the traders to walk up and down the
passage between them, and talk with them as we liked.
As Mr. S. passed the men, several lifted their hands
and said, * Here's the boy that will suit you ; I can do
any kind of work.* Some advertised themselves with
a good deal of tact. One woman pulled at my shawl
and asked me to buy her. I told her that I was not
a housekeeper. * Not married ? * she asked. — * No.' —
* Well, then, get married and buy me and my husband.*

" There was a girl among them whiter than I, who
roused my sympathies very much. I could not speak
to her, for the past and the future were too plainly told
in her face. I spoke to another, a bright-looking girl
of twelve. * Where were you raised ? * — * In Kentucky.'
— * And why are you to be sold ? ' — * The trader came
to Kentucky, bought me, and brought me here.* I

SOUTHERN TOUR 67

thought what right had I to be homesick, when that
poor girl had left all her kindred for life without her
consent.

" I could hold my tongue and look around without
much outward show of disgust, but to talk pleasantly
to the trader I could not consent. He told me that he
had been brought up in the business, but he thought it
a pity.

" No buyers were present, so there was no examina-
tion that was painful to look upon.

"The slaves were intelligent-looking, and very
healthy and neat in appearance. Those who belonged
to one owner were dressed alike — some in striped pink
and white dresses, others in plaid, all a little showy.
The men were in thick trousers and coarse dark-blue
jackets.

"April 5. We have been this morning to a negro
church. We found it a miserable-looking house,
mostly unpainted and unplastered, but well filled with
the swarthy faces. They were singing when we
entered; we were pointed to a good seat.

** There may have been fifty persons present, all well
dressed; the women in the fanciful checkered head-
dresses so much favored by the negro race, the men
in clean collars, nankin trousers, and dark coats. All
showed that they were well kept and well fed.

"The audience was increased by new-comers fre-
quently, and these, whatever the exercise might be,
shook hands with those around them as they seated
themselves, and joined immediately in the services. The
singing was by the whole congregation, the minister

68 MARIA MITCHELL

lining out the hymns as in the early times in New Eng-
land.

" Several persons carried on the exercises from the
^ pulpit, and in the prayers and sermon the audience

took an active part, responding in g^roans, * Oh, yes,' or
'Amen,' sometimes performing a kind of chant to
accompany the words, ... A negro minister said
in his prayer, * O God, we are not for much talking.'
\ I was delighted at the prospect of a short discourse, but

% I found his 'not much talking' exactly corresponded

I to ' a good deal ' in my use of words. He talked for

1 a full hour.

*' There was something pleasing in the earnestness of
the preacher and the sympathetic feeling of the audi-
ence, but their peculiar condition was not alluded to,
and probably was not felt.

*' The discourse was almost ludicrous at times, and
at times was pathetic. I saved up a few specimens :

" * O Grod, you have said that where one or two are
gathered together in your name, there will you be ; if any-
thing stands between us that you can't come, put it aside,'
" * Grod wants a kingdom upon earth with which he
can coin-cide, and that kingdom are your heart.'

" * God is near you when you are at the wash-tub or
the ironing-table.'

} " * Brethren, I tiiought last Sabbath I wouldn't live

\ to this ; a man gets such a notion sometimes.'

! " April 9, Alabama River. Some lessons we of the

i North might learn from the South, and one is a greater

j regard for human life. I asked the captain of our boat

if they had any accidents in these waters. He said.

SOUTHEXAr TOUR 69

' We dan't kill i>eople at the South, we gave that up
some years ago; we leave it to the North, and the
North seems to be capable of doing it'

** The reason for this is, that they are in no hurry.
The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety
is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry.

"Every one at the South introduces its * peculiar
institution * into conversation.

" They talk as I expected Southern people of intel-
ligence to talk ; they lament the evil, and say, ^ It is
upon us, what can we do? To give them freedom
would be crueL'

** Southerners fall back upon the Bible at once ; there
is more of the old-fashioned religion at the South than
at the North ; that is, they are not intellectual religion-
ists. They are shocked by the irreligion of Massachu-
setts, and by Theodore Parker. They read the Bible,
and can quote it ; they are ready with it as an argu-
ment at every turn. I am of course not used to the
warfare, and so withdraw from the fight.

** One argument which three persons have brought
up to me is the superior condition of the blacks now,
to what it would have been had their parents remained
in Africa, and they been children of the soil. I make
no answer to this, for if this is an argument, it would be
our duty to enslave the heathen, instead of attempting
to enlighten them.

** We hear some anecdotes which are amusing. A
Judge Smith, of South Carolina, moved to Alabama, and
became a prominent man there. He was sent to the
Senate. He was violently opposed by a young man

70 MARIA MITCHELL

who said that but for his gray hair he would challenge
him. Judge Smith said, ' You are not the first coward
who has taken shelter beneath my gray hairs/

" The same Judge Smith, when a proposition came
before the Senate to build a State penitentiary, said,
'Wall in the city of Mobile ; you will have your peni-
tentiary and its inmates/

" So far I have found it easier to travel without an
escort South and West than at the North ; that is, I
have more care taken of me. Every one is courteous,
too, in speech. I know that they cannot love Massa-
chusetts, but they are careful not to wound my feelings.
They acknowledge it to be the great State in education ;
they point to a pretty village and say, * Almost as neat
as a New England village.'

" Savannah, April 15. . . . To-day we left town
at ten o'clock for a drive in any direction that we liked.
Mr. F. and I went in a buggy, and Miss S. cantered
behind us on her horse.

" The road that we took led to some rice plantations
ten miles out of the city. Our path was ornamented
by the live-oaks, cedar trees, the dogwood, and occa-
sionally the mistletoe, and enlivened sometimes by the
whistle of the mocking-bird. Down low by the wheels
grew the wild azalea and the jessamine. Above our
heads the Spanish moss hung from the trees in beauti-
ful drapery.

" By mistake we drove into the plantation grounds of
Mr. Gibbons, a man of wealth, who is seldom on his
lands, and where the avenues are therefore a little wildi
and the roads a little rough.

SOUTHERN' TOUR Jl

" We came afterwards upon a road leading under the
most magnificent oaks that I ever saw. I felt as if I
were under the arched roof of some ancient cathedral.

" The trees were irregularly grouped and of immense
size, throwing their hundreds of arms far upon the
background of heaven, and bearing the drapery of the
Spanish moss fold upon fold, as if they sought to keep
their raiment from touching the earth. I was perfectly
delighted, and think it the finest picture I have yet
seen.

" Retracing our steps, we sought the plantation of
Mr. Potter — a very different one from that of Mr.
Gibbons, as all was finish and neatness ; a fine mansion
well stored with books, and some fine oaks, some of
which Mr. Potter had planted himself

" Mr. Potter walked through the fields with us, and,
stopping among the negro huts, he said to a little boy,
* Call the children and give us some singing.' The
little boy ran off, shouting, ' Come and sing for massa ; '
and in a few minutes the little darkies might be seen
running through the fields and tumbling over the
fences in their anxiety to get to us, to the number of
eighteen.

"They sat upon the ground around us and began
their song. The boy who led sang * Early in the
Morning,* and the other seventeen brought in a chorus
of * Let us think of Jesus.' Then the leader set up
something about ' God Almicha,* to which the others
brought in another chorus.

** They were a dirty and shabby looking set, but as
usual fat, even to the little babies, whom the larger boys

72 MARIA MITCHELL

were teading* One little girl as she passed Mr. Potter
carelessly put her hand in his and said, * Good morn-
ing, massa.'

"Mrs. G. tells me an anecdote which shows the
Southern sentiment on the one subject The ladies of
Charleston were much pleased with Miss Murray, and
got up for her what they called a Murray testimoniv^,
a collection of divers pretty things made by their own
hands. The large box was ready to be sent to England,
but alas for Miss Murray ! While they were debating in
what way it should be sent to ensure its reaching her
without cost to herself, in an unwise moment she sent
twenty-five dollars to 'Bleeding Kansas,' and the fit
of good feeling towards her ebbed ; the * testimonial '
remains unsent.

" April 23, Charleston. This place is somewhat like
Boston in its narrow streets, but unlike Boston in
being quiet; as is all the South. Quiet and moder-^
ation seem to be the attributes of Southern cities.
You need not hurry to a boat for fear it will leave at
the hour appointed ; it never does.

" We took a carriage and drove along the Battery.
The snuff of salt air did me good.

" Then we went on to a garden of roses, owned and
cultivated by a colored woman. She has some twenty
acres devoted to flowers and vegetables, and she owns
twenty 'niggers.' The universal term for slaves is
' niggers.' ' Nigger, bring that * horse,' • Nigger, get
out of the way,' will be said by the finest gentleman,
and * My niggers ' is said by every one.

'' I do not believe that tiie slaves are badly treated ;

SOUTHERN TOUR 73

there may be cases of it, but I have seen them only
sleek, fat> and lazy.

" The old buildings of Charleston please me exceed-
ingly. The houses are built of brick, standing end to
the street, three stories in height, with piazza above
piazza at the side; with flower gardens around, and
magnolias at the gates; the winding steps to the man*
sions festooned with roses.

" I have just called on Miss Rutledge, who lives in the
second oldest house in the city ; herself a fine specimen
of antiquity, in her double- ruffled cap and plaided
black dress; she chatted away like a young person,
using the good old English.

"April 26. To-day Mr. Capers called on me, I
was pleased with the account he gave me of his col-
lege life, and of a meeting held by his class thirty years
after they graduated. Some thirty of them assembled
at the Revere House in Boston ; they spread a table
with viands from all sections of the country. Mr.
Capers sent watermelons, and another gentleman from
Kentucky sent the wines of his State.

" They sat late at table ; they renewed the old friend-
ships and talked over college scenes, and when it was
near midnight some one proposed that each should give
a sketch of his life, so they went through in alphabet!*
cal order.

" Adams was the first. He said, ' You all remember
how I waited upon table in commons. You know that
I afterwards went through college, but you do not know
that to this man [and he pointed to a classmate] I was
indebted for the money that paid for my college course.'

74 MARIA MITCHELL

"Anderson was the second, and he told of his
two wives : of the first, much ; of the second, little.
Bowditch came next, and he said he would tell of
Anderson's second wife, who was a Miss Lockworth,
of Lexington, Ky.

"Anderson, a widower, and his brother went to
Lexington, carrying with them a letter of introduction
to the father of the young lady.

" While the brother was making an elaborate toilet,
Anderson strolled out, and came, in his walk, upon a
beautiful residence, and saw, within the enclosure, some
inviting grounds. He stopped and spoke to the porter,
and found it was Mr. Lockworth's. He told the porter
that he had letters to Mr. Lockworth, and was intending
to call upon him. The porter was very communica-
tive, and told him a good deal. Anderson asked if
there were not a pretty daughter. The porter asked
him to walk around. As he entered the gate he reached
a dollar to the man, and, being much pleased, when he
came out he reached the porter another dollar.

" Anderson went back to the hotel, told his brother
about it, and they set out together to deliver the letter.
The brother knew Mr. Lockworth, and as they met
him in the parlor, he walked up, shook hands with him,
and asked to present his brother, Lars Anderson. ' No
introduction is necessary,' said Mr. Lockworth; and
putting his hand into his pocket, drawing out the two
dollars, he added, * I am already in your debt just this
sum!' The 'pretty daughter' was sitting upon the
sofa.

" Mr. Capers told me that their autobiographies drew

SOUTHERN' TOUR 75

smiles and tears alternately; they continued till one
o'clock ; then one of the class said, * Brothers, do you
know that not a wineglass has yet been turned up, not
a drop of wine drunk? And all were at once so im-
pressed with the conviction that they had all been lifted
above the needs of the flesh that they refused to drink,
and one of the clergymen of the class kneeling in
prayer, they all knelt at once, even to some idle
spectators who were looking on.

" April 28. Nothing can exceed the hospitality shown
to us. We have several invitations for each day> and
calls without limit.

" I had heard Mrs. Holbrook described as a wot^^ty
and I found her a very pleasing woman^ all ready to
talk, and talking with a richness of expression which
shows a full mind. Mrs. Holbrook was a Rutledge, and
it was amusing, after seeing her, to open Miss Bremer's
* Homes of the New World,' and read her extravagant
comments. Miss ^remer was certainly made happy at
Belmont. p-

** April 29. To-day I have been to see Miss Pinck-
ney. She is the last representative of her name, is over
eighty, and still retains the animation of youth, though
somewhat shaken in her physical strength by age.
I found her sitting in an armchair, her feet resting
upon a cushion, surrounded by some half-dozen callers.

" She rose at once when I entered, and insisted upon
my occupying her seat, while she took a less comfort-
able one.

** The walls of the room were ornamented with por-
traits of Major-General Pinckney by Stuart, Stuart's

76 MARIA MITCHELL

Washington, one by Morris of General Thomas Pinck-
ney, and a portrait of Miss Pinckney's mother.

** Miss Pinckney is a very plain woman, but much
beloved for her benevolence.

** It is said that on looking over her diary which she
keeps, recording the reasons for her many gifts to her
friends and to her slaves, such entries as these will be
found:

" * $ to Mary, because she is married.'

**'* $ to Julia, fcecause she has no husband.'

** Miss Pinckftey showed me among her centre-table
fornaments a .miniature of Washington; one of her
^grandmother, of exceeding beauty ; one of each of the
jPinckneys whose portraits are on the walls.

** Charleston is full of ante-Revolution houses, and they
please me. They were built when there was no hurry ;
they were built to last, and they have lasted, and will
yet last for the children of their present possessors.

" Nothing can be happier in expression than the faces
of the colored children. They have what must be the
ease of the lower classes in a despotic country. The
slaves have no care, no ambition ; their place is a fixed
one — they know it, and take all the good they can get.
The children are fat, sleeky and, inheriting no nervous
longings from their parents, are on a constant grin — at
play with loud laughs and high leaps.

** May I. It does not follow because the slaves are
sleek and fat and really happy — for happy I believe
they are — that slavery is not an evil ; and the great evil
is, as I always supposed, in the effect upon the whites.
The few Southern gentlemen that I know interest me

t

SOUTHERN TOUR JJ

from their courtesy, agreeable manners, and ready
speech. They also strike me as childlike and fussy.
I catch myself feeling that I am the man and they are
women ; and I see this even in the captain of a steamer.
Then they all like to talk sentiment — their religion is
a feeling.

** May 2. The negroes are remarkable for their
courtesy of manner. Those who belong to good
families seem to pride themselves upon their dress and
style.

" A lady walking in Charleston is never jostled by
black or white man. The white man steps out of her
way, the black man does this and touches his hat.
The black woman bows — she is distinguished by her
neat dress, her clean plaid head-dress, and her upright
carriage. It would be well for some of our young
ladies to carry burdens on their heads, even to the risk
of flattening the instep, if by that means they could
get the straight back of a slave.

" Mrs. W., who takes us out to drive, comes with her
black coachman and a little boy. The coachman wears
white gloves, and looks like a gentleman. The little
boy rings door-bells when we stop.

" When it rained the other day, Mrs. W. dropped
the window of the carriage, and desired the two to put
on their shawls, for fear they would take cold. They
are plainly a great care to their owners, for they are
like children and cannot take care of themselves ; and
yet in another way the masters are like children, from
the constant waiting upon that they receive. One would
think, where one class does all the thinking and the

78 MARIA MITCHELL

other all the working, that masters would be active
thinkers and slaves ready workers; but neither result
seems to happen — both are listless and inactive.

" May 3. I asked Miss Pinckney to-day if she remem-
bered George Washington. She and Mrs. Poinsett
spoke at once. ** *0h, yes, we were children,* said Mrs.
Poinsett ; * but my father would have him come to see
us, and he took each of us in his arms and kissed us ;
and at another time we went to Mt. Vernon and made
him a visit.'

"Never were more intelligent old ladies than Mrs.
Poinsett and Miss Pinckney. The latter stepped around
like a young girl, and brought a heavy book to show
me the sketch of her sister, Marie Henrietta Pinckney,
who, in the nullification time of 1830, wrote a pamphlet
in defence of the State.

" Miss Pinckney's father was the originator of the
celebrated maxim, * Millions for defence, but not one
cent for tribute.* Their house was the headquarters
for the nullifiers, and they had serenades, she said, with-
out number.

"It was pleasant to hear the old ladies chatter
away, and it was interesting to think of the distin-
guished men who had been under that roof, and of the
cultivated and beautiful women who had adorned the
mansion.

" Miss Pinckney, when I left, followed me to the door,
and put into my hands an elegant little volume of
poems, called * Reliquiai.*

" They seem to be simple effusions of some person
who died early.

SOUTHERN TOUR 79

" May 9. We left Charleston, its old houses and its
good people, on Monday, and reached Augusta the
same day.

" Augusta is prettily laid out, but the place is of little
interest ; and for the hotel where we stayed, I can only
give this advice to its inmates : * Don't examine a black
spot upon your pillow-case; go to sleep at once, and
keep asleep if you can/

" When we were on the road from Augusta to Atlanta,
the conductor said, * If you are going on to Nashville,
you will be on the road in the night ; people don't love
to go on that road in the night. I don't know why.'

" When we came to the Nashville road, I thought that
I knew * why.' The road runs around the base of a
mountain, while directly beneath it, at a great depth,
runs a river. A dash off the track on one side would
be against the mountain, on the other side would be
into the river, while the sharp turns seem to invite such
a catastrophe. When we were somewhat wrought up
to a nervous excitement, the cars would plunge into the
darkness of a tunnel — darkness such as I almost felt.

**It was a picturesque but weary ride, and we were
tired and hungry when we reached Nashville.

"May II. To-day we have been out for a two-
hours' drive. It is warm, cloudy, and looks like a
tempest; we are too tired for much effort.

" Mrs. Fogg, of Nashville, took us to call on the

widow of • President Polk. We found her at home

»

though apparently just ready for a walk. She is still
in mourning, and tells me that she has not travelled
fifty miles from home in the last eight years.

8o MARIA MITCHELL

** She spoke to me of Governor Briggs (of Massachu-
setts), an old friend; of Professor Hare; and said that
among her cards, on her return from a journey some
years ago, she found Charles Sumner's ; and forgetting at
the moment who he was, she asked the servant who he
was. * The Abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts —
I asked him in,' was the reply.

" Mrs. Polk talks • readily, is handsome, elegant in
figure, and shows at once that she is well read. She
told me that she reads all the newspaper reports of the
progress of science. She lives simply, as any New
England woman would, though her house is larger than
most private residences.

•* Mrs. Fogg told me many anecdotes of Dorothea
Dix. That lady was, at one time, travelling alone, and
was obliged to stop at some little village tavern. As
she lay half asleep upon the sofa, the driver of the
stage in which she was to take passage came into the
room, approached her, and held a light to her closed
eyes. She did not dare to move nor utter a sound, but
when he turned away she opened her eyes and watched
him. He went to the mail-bags, opened them, took
out the letters, hastily broke the seals, took out money
enclosed, put it into his pocket, closed the bags, and
again approached her with his lamp. She shut her
eyes and pretended to sleep again ; then at the proper
time entered the stage and pursued her journey. At
the end of the journey she reported his conduct to the
proper authorities.

" I was a little doubtful about the propriety of going
to the Mammoth Cave without a gentleman escort, but

SOUTHERN TOUR 8 1

if two ladies travel alone they must have the courage of
men. So I called the landlord as soon as we arrived at
the Cave House, and asked if we could have Mat, who I
had been told was the best guide now that Stephen is
ill. The landlord promised Mat to me for two days.
After dinner we made our first attempt.

"The ground descends for some two hundred feet
towards the mouth of the cave; then you come to a low
hill, and you descend through a small aperture not at
all imposing, in front of which trickles a little stream.
For some little while we needed no light, but soon the
guide lighted and gave to each of us a little lamp.
Mat took the lead, I came next. Miss S. followed, and
an old slave brought up in the rear.

** I confess that I shuddered as I came into the dark-
ness. Our lamps, of course, gave but feeble light ; we
barely saw at first where our feet must step.

" I looked up, trying in vain to find the ceiling or the
walls. All was darkness. In about an hour we saw
more clearly. The chambers are, many of them, ellip-
tical in shape ; the ceiling is of mixed dark and white
color, and looks much like the sky on a cloudy moon-
light evening.

" A friend of ours, who has been much in the cave,
says, *If the top were lifted off, and the whole were
exposed to view, no woman would ever enter it again.'

" We clambered over heaps of rocks, we descended
ladders, wound through narrow passages, passed along
chambers so low that we crouched for the whole
length, entered upon lofty halls, ascended ladders, and
crossed a bridge over a yawning abyss.

82 MARIA MITCHELL

** Every nightmare scene that I had ever dreamed of
seemed to be realized. I shuddered several times, and
was obliged to reason with myself to assure me of
safety. Occasionally we sat down and rested upon
some flat rock.

** Miss S., who has a great taste for costuming, wound
her plaid shawl about her shoulders, turbaned her head
with a green veil, swung her lamp upon a stick which
she rested upon her shoulder, and then threw herself
upon a rock in a most picturesque attitude. The guide
took a lower seat, and his dirty tin cup, swung across
his breast, looked like an ornament as the light struck
it ; his swarthy face was bright, and I wondered what
our friends at home would give for a picture.

** One of these elliptical halls has its ceiling immensely
far off, and of the deepest black, until our feeble little
lights strike upon innumerable points, when it shines
forth like a dark starlight night. The stars are faint,
but they look so exceedingly like the heavens that one
easily forgets that it is not reality.

"The guide asked us to be seated, while he went
behind down a descent with the lights, to show us
the creeping over of the shadows of the rocks, as if a
dark cloud passed over the starlit vault. The black
cloud crept on and on as the guide descended, until a
fear came over us, and we cried out together to him
to come back, not to leave us in total darkness. He
begged that he might go still lower and show us entire
darkness, but we would not permit it.

" Guin's Dome. What the name means I can't say.
The guide tells you to pause in your scrambling over

SOUTHERN TOUR 83

loose stones and muddy soil, — which you are always
willing to do, — and to put your head through a circu-
lar aperture, and to look up while he lights the Bengal
light; you obey, and look up upon columns of fluted,
snowy whiteness ; he tells you to look down, and you
follow the same pillars down — up to heights which the
light cannot climb, down to depths on which it cannot
fall.

" You shudder as you look up, and you shudder as
you look down. Indeed, the march of the cave is a
series of shudders. Geologists may enjoy it, a large
party may be merry in it; but if the * underground rail-
road ' of the slaves is of that kind, I should rather
remain a slave than undertake a runaway trip !

" May 18. To-day we retraced our steps from Nash-
ville to Chattanooga. It had been raining nearly all
night, and we found, when not far from the latter place,
that the streams were pouring down from the high
lands upon the car-track, so that we came through
rivers. When we dashed into the dark tunnel it was
darker than ever from the darkness of the day, and it
seemed to me that the darkness pressed upon me. I
am sure I should keep my senses a very little while if
I were confined in a dark place.

** As we came out of the tunnel, the water from the
hill above dashed upon the cars ; and although it did not
break the panes of glass, it forced its way through and
sprinkled us.

" The route, with all its terrors, is beautiful, and the
trees are now much finer than they were ten days ago.

" May 27. There is this great difference between

84 MARIA MITCHELL

Niagara and other wonders of the world : that of it you
get no idea from descriptions, or even from paintings.
Of the * Mammoth Cave ' you have a conception from
what you are told ; of the Natural Bridge you get a
really truthful impression from a picture. But cave and
bridge are in still life. Niagara is all activity and
change. No picture gives you the varying form of the
water or the change of color; no description conveys
to your mind the ceaseless roar. So, too, the ocean
must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked
upon it.

" The Natural Bridge stands out bold and high, just
as you expect to see it. You are agreeably disap-
pointed, however, on finding that you can go under the
arch and be completely in the coolness of its shade
while you look up for two hundred feet to the rocky
black and white ceiling above.

" One of the prettiest peculiarities is the fringing
above of the trees which hang over the edge, and look-
ing out past the arch the wooded banks of the ravine
are very pleasant. From above, one has the pain
always attendant to me upon looking down into an
abyss, but at the same time one obtains a better con-
ception of the depth of the valley. It is well worth see-
ing, partly for itself, partly because it can be reached
only by a ride among the hills of the Blue Ridge."

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 85

CHAPTER V

1857

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR LIVERPOOL — THE HAWTHORNES

LONDON — GREENWICH OBSERVATORY ADMIRAL SMYTH

DR. LEE

Shortly after her return from the South, Miss
Mitchell started again for a tour in Europe with the
same young girl.

Miss TVIitchell carried letters from eminent scientific
people in this country to such persons as it would be
desirable for her to know in Europe; especially to
astronomers and mathematicians.

When Miss Mitchell went to Europe she took her
Almanac work with her, and what time she was not
sight-seeing she was continuing that work. Her wis-
dom in this respect was very soon apparent. She had
not been in England many weeks when a great financial
crisis took place in the United States, and the father of
her young charge succumbed to the general failure.
The young lady was called home, but after considering
the matter seriously Miss Mitchell decided to remain
herself, putting the young lady into careful hands for
the return passage from Liverpool.

Miss Mitchell enjoyed the society of the scien-
tific people whom she met in England to her heart's
content. She was very cordially received, and the

86 MARIA MITCHELL

astronomers not only opened their observatories to her,
but welcomed her into their family life.

On arriving at Liverpool, Miss Mitchell delivered
the letters to the astronomers living in or near that
city, and visited their observatories.

**Aug. 3, 1857. I brought a letter from Professor
Silliman to Mr. John Taylor, cotton merchant and
astronomer; and to-day I have taken tea with him.
He is an old man, nearly eighty I should think, but full
of life, and talks by the hour on heathen mythology.
He was the principal agent in the establishment of the
Liverpool Observatory, but disclaims the honor, because
it was established on so small a scale, compared with
his own gigantic plan. Mr. Taylor has invented a little
machine, for showing the approximate position of a
comet, having the elements.

** He has also made additions to the globes made by
/ De Morgan, so that they can be used for any year

and show the correct rising and setting of the stars.

** He struck me as being a man of taste, but of no
great profundity. He has a painting which he believes
to be by Guido ; it seemed to me too fresh in its color-
ing for the sixteenth century.

" August 4, 3 P.M. I put down my pen, because
* old Mr. Taylor called, and while he was here Rev.

James Martineau came. Mr. Martineau is one of the
handsomest men I ever saw. He cannot be more than
thirty, or if he is he has kept his dark hair remarkably.
He has large, bluish-gray eyes, and is tall and elegant
in manner. He says he is just packed to move to
London. He gave me his London address and hoped

i

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 87

he should see me there ; but I doubt if he does, for I
did not like to tell him my address unless he asked for
it, for fear of seeming to be pushing.

" August, ... I have been to visit Mr. Lassell.
He called yesterday and asked me to dine with him
to-day. He has a charming place, about four miles
out of Liverpool; a pretty house and grounds.

" Mr. Lassell has constructed two telescopes, both
on the Newtonian plan ; one of ten, the other of twenty,
feet in length. Each has its separate building, and in
the smaller building is a transit instrument.

" Mr. Lassell must have been a most indefatigable
worker as well as a most ingenious man ; for, besides
constructing his own instruments, he has found time
to make discoveries. He is, besides, very genial and
pleasant, and told me some good anecdotes connected
with astronomical observations.

** One story pleased me very much. Our Massachu-
setts astronomer, Alvan Clark, has long been a corre-
spondent of Mr. Dawes, but has never seen him.
Wishing to have an idea of his person, and being a
portrait painter, Mr. Clark sent to Mr. Dawes for his
daguerreotype, and from that painted a likeness,
which he has sent out to Liverpool, and which is said
to be excellent.

'* Mr. Lassell looks in at the side of his reflecting tele-
scopes by means of a diagonal eye-piece ; when the
instrument is pointed at objects of high altitude he
hangs a ladder upon the dome and mounts ; the ladder
moves around with the dome. Mr. Lassell works only
for his own amusement, and has been to Malta. ^-

88 MARIA MITCHELL

carrying his larger telescope with him, — for the sake
of clearer skies. Neither Mr. Lassell nor Mr, Hartnup ^
makes regular observations.

" The Misses Lassell, four in number, seem to be very
accomplished. They take photographs of each other
which are beautiful, make their own picture-frames,
and work in the same workshop with their father. One
of them told me that she made observations on my
comet, supposing it to belong to Mr. Dawes, who was
a friend of hers.

"They keep an album of the autographs of their
scientific visitors, and among them I saw those of Pro-
fessor Young, of Dartmouth, and of Professor Loomis.

•* August 4. I have just returned from a visit to
the Liverpool Observatory, under the direction of Mr.
Hartnup. It is situated on Waterloo dock, and the
pier of the observatory rests upon the sandstone of that
region. The telescope is an equatorial; like many
good instruments in our country, it is almost unused.

" Mr. Hartnup's observatory is for nautical purposes.
1 found him a very gentlemanly person, and very will-
ing to show me anything of interest about the observa-
tory ; but they make no regular series of astronomical
observations, other than those required for the com-
merce of Liverpool.

** Mr. Hartnup has a clock which by the application
of an electric current controls the action of other clocks,
especially the town clock of Liverpool — distant some
miles. The current of electricity is not the motive
power, but a corrector.

^ Of the Liverpool Observatory.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 89

** Much attention is paid to meteorology. The press-
ure of the wind, the horizontal motion, and the course
are recorded upon sheets of paper running upon cylin-
ders and connected with the clock; the instrument
which obeys the voice of the wind being outside.

"Aug. S, 1857. I did not send my letter to Mr.
Hawthorne until yesterday, supposing that he was not
in the city ; but yesterday when Rev. James Martineau
called on me, he said that he had not yet left. Mr.
Martineau said that it would be a great loss to Liver-
pool when Mr. Hawthorne went away.

" I sent my letter at once ; from all that I had heard
of Mr. Hawthorne's shyness, I thought it doubtful if he
would call, and I was therefore very much pleased when
his card was sent in this morning. Mr. Hawthorne was
more chatty than I had expected, but not any more
diffident. He remained about five minutes, during
which time he took his hat from the table and put it
back once a minute, brushing it each time. The en-
gravings in the books are much like him. He is not
handsome, but looks as the author of his books should
look ; a little strange and odd, as if not of this earth.
He has large, bluish-gray eyes ; his hair stands out on
each side, so much so that one's thoughts naturally
turn to combs and hair-brushes and toilet ceremonies
as one looks at him."

Later, when Miss Mitchell was in Paris, alone, on
her way to Rome, she sent to the Hawthornes, who
were also in Paris, asking for the privilege of joining
them, as they too were journeying in the same
direction. She says in her diary:

90 MARIA MITCHELL

" Mrs. Hawthorne was feeble, and she told me that
she objected, but that Mr. Hawthorne assured her that
I was a person who would give no trouble ; therefore
she consented. We were about ten days on the journey
to Rome, and three months in Rome ; living, however,
some streets asunder. I saw them nearly every day.
Like everybody else, I found Mr. Hawthorne very
taciturn. His few words were, however, very telling.
When I talked French, he told me it was capital : * It
came down like a sledge-hammer.' His little satirical
remarks were such as these : It was March and I took
a bunch of violets to Rosa ; notched white paper was
wound around them, and Mr. Hawthorne said, * They
have on a cambric ruffle."

" Generally he sat by an open fire, with his feet
thrust into the coals, and an open volume of Thackeray
upon his knees. He said that Thackeray was the
greatest living novelist. I som^imes suspected that
the volume of Thackeray was k^t as a foil, that he
might not be talked to. He shraAk from society, but
rode and walked." \

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER.

Rome, Feb. i6, 1858.
. . . The Hawthomes are invaluable to me, because the little
ones come to my room every day and I go there when I like.
Mrs. Hawthorne sometimes walks with us, Mr. H. never. He has
a horror of sight-seeing and of emotions in general, but I like him
very much, and when I say I like him it only means that I like
her a little more. Julian, the boy, is in love with me. When I
was last there Mr. H. came home with me ; as he put on his coat he
turned to Julian and said, ** Julian, I should think with your tender
i/ite> est in Miss Mitchell you wouldn't let me escort her home."

FIRST EUROPEAN- TOUR 9 1

" We arrived in Rome in the evening. . Mrs. H. wa^
somewhat of an invalid, and Mr. Hawthorne tried ia
vain to make the servant understand that she must have
a fire in her room. He spoke no word of French,.
German, or Italian, but he said emphatically, * Make a
fire in Mrs. Hawthorne's room.' Worn out with, his
efforts, he turned to me and said, * Do, Miss Mitchell,
tell the servant what I want ; your French is, exQeUent I
Englishmen and Frenchmen understand^ it equally'
well.* So I said in execrable French,. * Ma^ke a fire,!'
and pointed to the grate ; of course tfe'C: gj^stujce waSs
understood.

" Mr. Hawthorne was minutely/ ^wJ' scjp.upul'ously
honest; I should say that he was a^ rjigid temperance
man. Once I heard Mrs. Hawthorn^r say to the clerk,
* Send some brandy to Mr. Hawtbprae at once.' We
were six in the party. When I paid my bill I heard
Mr. Hawthorne say to Miss S.,. th^ teacher, who took
all the business cares, * Don't let Miss Mitchell pay
for one-sixth of my brandy.'

"So if we ordered tea for five, and six partook
of it, he called the waiter and said, * Six have partaken
of the tea, although there was no tea added to the
amount.'

'* I told Mr. Hawthorne that a friend of mine, Miss W.,
desired very much to see him, as she admired him very
much. He said, * Don't let her see me, let her keep her
little lamp burning.'

" He was a sad man ; I could never tell why. I never
could get at anything of his religious views.

" He was wonderfully blest in his family. Mrs.

92 MARIA MITCHELL

Hawthorne almost worshipped him. She was of a very
serious and religious turn of mind.

•"I dined with them the day that, Una was sixteen
years old. We drank her health in cold water. Mr.
Hawthoftte ;said, * May you live happily, and be ready
tto go when you must.'

"He joined in the family talk very pleasantly. One
(evening \we made up a story. One said, * A party was
in Rome ;' another said, * It was a pleasant day;' another
•said, * They took a walk.' It came to Hawthorne's turn,
and he said, 'Do put in an incident;' so Rosa said,
' Then a bear jumped from the top of St. Peter's ! ' The
story went no further.

** I was with the family when they first went to St.
Peter's. Hawthorne turned away saying, * The St. Peter's
of my imagination was better.*

" I think he could not have been well, he was so very
inactive. If he walked out he took Rosa, then a child
of six, with him. He once came with her to my room,
but he seemed tired from the ascent of the stairs. I was
on the fifth floor.

** I have been surprised to see that he made severe
personal remarks in his journal, for in the three months
that I knew him I never heard an unkind word ; he was
always courteous, gentle, and retiring. Mrs. Hawthorne
said she took a wifely pride in his having no small
vices. Mr. Hawthorne said to Miss S., * I have yet to
find the first fault in Mrs. Hawthorne.'

" One day Mrs. Hawthorne came to my room, held
up an inkstand, and said, ' The new book will be begun
to-night'

FIRST EUROPEAN- TOUR ' 93

" This was ' The Marble Faun.* She said, ' Mr. Haw-
thorne writes after every one has gone to bed. I never
see the manuscript until it is what he calls clothed* . . .
Mrs. H. says he never knows when he is writing a story
how the characters will turn out ; he waits foV tkem to
influence him,

** I asked her if Zenobia was intended for Margaret
Fuller, and she said, * No ; ' but Mr. Hawthorne admitted
that Margaret Fuller seemed to be around him when he
was writing it.

** London, August. We went out for our first walk
as soon as breakfast was over, and we walked on
Regent street for hours, looking in at the shop win-
dows. The first view of the street was beautiful, for it
was a misty morning, and we saw its length fade away
as if it had no end. I like it that in our first walk we
came upon a crowd standing around * Punch.' It is a
ridiculous affair, but as it is as much a * peculiar insti-
tution ' as is Southern slavery, I stopped and listened,
and after we came into the house Miss S. threw out
some pence for them. We rested after the shop
windows of Regent street, took dinner, and went out
again, this time to Piccadilly.

" The servility of the shopkeepers is really a little
offensive. ' What shall I have the honor of showing
you?' they say.

** Our chambermaid, at our lodgings, thanks us every
time we speak to her.

" I feel ashamed to reach a four-penny piece to a
stout coachman who touches his hat and begs me to
remember him. Sometimes I am ready to say, * How

94 MARIA MITCHELL

can I forget you, when you have hung around me so
closely for half an hour?'

** Our waiter at the Adelphi Hotel, at Liverpool, was
a very respectable middle-aged man, with a white neck-
cloth ; her looked like a Methodist parson. He waited
upon us for five days with great gravity, and then
another waiter told us that we could give our waiter
what we pleased. We were charged £i for * attend-
ance ' in the bill, but I very innocently gave half as
much more, as fee to the * parson.'

"August 14. To-day we took a brougham and
drove around for hours. Of course we didn't see
London, and if we stay a month we shall still know
nothing of it, it is so immense. I keep thinking, as I
go through the streets, of * The rats and the mice, they
made such a strife, he had to go to London,' etc., and
especially 'The streets were so wide, and the lanes
were so narrow ; ' for I never saw such narrow streets,
even in Boston.

"We have begun to send out letters, but as it is
* out of season ' I am afraid everybody will be at the
watering-places.

The Greenwich Observatory. " The observatory
was founded by Charles H. The king that * never said a
foolish thing and never did a wise one ' was yet sagacious
enough to start an institution which has grown to be a
thing of might, and this, too, of his own will, and not from
the influence of courtiers. One of the hospital buildings
of Greenwich, then called the * House of Delights,* was the
residence of Henrietta Maria, and the young prince proba-
bly played on the little hill now the site of the observatory.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 95

" But Charles, though he started an observatory, did
not know very well what was needed. The first build-
ing consisted of a large, octagonal room, with windows
all around ; it was considered sufficiently firm without
any foundation, and sufficiently open to the heavens
with no opening higher than windows. This room is
now used as a place of deposit for instruments, and
busts and portraits of eminent men, and also as the
dancing-hall for the director's family.

** Under Mr. Airy's^ direction, the walls of the observ-
ing-room have become pages of its history. The tran-
sit instruments used by Halley, Bradley, and Pond hang
side by side; the zenith sector with which Bradley dis-
covered the ' aberration of light,* now moving rustily on
its arc, is the ornament of another room; while the
shelves of the computing-room are filled with volumes
of unpublished observations of Flamstead and others.

** The observatory stands in Greenwich Park, the
prettiest park I have yet seen ; being a group of small
hills. They point out oaks said to belong to Elizabeth's
time — noble oaks of any time. The observatory is one
hundred and fifty feet above the sea level. The view
from it is, of course, beautiful. On the north the river,
the little Thames, big with its fleet, is winding around
the Isle of Dogs ; on the left London, always overhung
with a cloud of smoke, through which St. PauTs and
the Houses of Parliament peep.

" Mr. Airy was exceedingly kind to me, and seemed
to take great interest in showing me around. He
appeared to be much gratified by my interest in the

* The late Sir George Airy.

96 MARIA MITCHELL

history of the observatory. He is naturally a despot,
and his position increases this tendency. Sitting in his
chair, the zero-point of longitude for the world, he
commands not only the little knot of observers and
computers around him, but when he says to London,

* It is one o'clock,* London adopts that time, and her
ships start for their voyages around the globe, and con-
tinue to count their time from that moment, wherever
the English flag is borne.

" It is singular what a quiet motive-power Science is,
the breath of a nation's progress.

** Mr. Airy is not favorable to the multiplication of
observatories. He predicted the failure of that at
Albany. He says that he would gladly destroy one-
half of the meridian instruments of the world, by way
of reform. I told him that my reform movement would
be to bring together the astronomers who had no instru-
ments and the instruments which had no astronomers.

" Mr. Airy is exceedingly systematic. In leading me
by narrow passages and up steep staircases, from one
room to another of the irregular collection of rooms,
he was continually cautioning me about my footsteps,
and in one place he seemed to have a kind of formula :

* Three steps at this place, ten at this, eleven at this,
and three again.' So, in descending a ladder to the
birthplace of the galvanic currents, he said, 'Turn
your back to the stairs, step down with the right foot,
take hold with the right hand ; reverse the operation in
ascending; do not, on coming out, turn around at
once, but step backwards one step first.'

'*Near the throne of the astronomical autocrat is

FIRST EUkOPEAN TOUR 97

another proof of his system, in a case of portfolios.
These contain the daily bills, letters, and papers, as
they come in and are answered in order. When a
portfolio is full, the papers are removed and are sewed
together. Each year's accumulation is bound, and the
bound volumes of Mr. Airy's time nearly cover one
side of his private room.

** Mr. Airy replies to all kinds of letters, with two
exceptions : those which ask for autographs, and those
which request him to calculate nativities. Both of
these are very frequent.

" In the drawing-room Mr. Airy is cheery; he loves
to recite ballads and knows by heart a mass of verses,
from * A, Apple Pie,' to the * Lady of the Lake.'

** A lover of Nature and a close observer of her ways,
as well in the forest walk as in the vault of heaven,
Mr. Airy has roamed among the beautiful scenery of
^the Lake region until he is as good a mountain guide
as can be found. He has strolled beside Grassmere
and ascended Helvellyn. He knows the height of the
mountain peaks, the shingles that lie on their sides,
the flowers that grow in the valleys, the mines beneath
the surface.

" At one time the Government Survey planted what
is called a * Man ' on the top of one of the hills of the
Lake region. In a dry season they built up a stone
monument, right upon the bed of a little pond. The
country people missed the little pond, which had
seemed to them an eye of Nature reflecting heaven's
blue light. They begged for the removal of the sur-
veyor's pile, and Mr. Airy at once changed the station.

98 MARIA MITCHELL

" The established observatories of England do not step
out of their beaten path to make discoveries — these
come from the amateurs. In this respect they differ
I from America and Germany. The amateurs of Eng-

land do a great deal of work, they learn to know of
what they and their instruments are capable, and it is
done.

" The library of Greenwich Observatory is large.
The transactions of learned societies alone fill a small
room ; the whole impression of the thirty volumes of
printed observations fills a wall of another room, and
the unpublished papers of the early directors make of
themselves a small manuscript library.

"October 22, 1857. We have just returned from
our fourth visit to Greenwich, like the others twenty-
four hours in length. We go again to-morrow to meet
the Sabines.

" Herr Struve, the director of the Pulkova Observa-
tory, is at Greenwich, with his son Karl. The old
gentleman is a magnificent-looking fellow, very large
and well proportioned ; his great head is covered with
white hair, his features are regular and handsome.
When he is introduced to any one he thrusts both hands
into the pockets of his pantaloons, and bows. I found
that the son considered this position of the hands par-
ticularly English, However, the old gentleman did me
the honor to shake hands with me, and when I told him
that I brought a letter to him from a friend in America,
he said, * It is quite unnecessary, I know you without.'
He speaks very good English.

" Herr Struve's mission in England is to see if he can

\

:

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 99

connect the trigonometrical surveys of the two coun-
tries. It is quite singular that he should visit England
for this purpose, so soon after Russia and England were
at war. One of his sons was an army surgeon at the
Crimea.

**Five visitors remained all night at the observatory.
I slept in a little round room and Miss S. in another, at
the top of a little jutting-out, curved building. Mrs.
Airy says, * Mr. Airy got permission of the Board of
Visitors to fit up some of the rooms as lodging-rooms.'
Mr. Airy said, * My dear love, I did as I always do : I
fitted them up first, and then I reported to the Board
that I had done it.'

" October 23. Another dinner-party at the obser-
vatory, consisting of the Struves, General and Mrs.
Sabine, Professor and Mrs. Powell, Mr. Main, and our-
selves ; more guests coming to tea.

" Mrs. Airy told me that she should arrange the
order of the guests at table to please herself; that prop-
erly all of the married ladies should precede me, but
that I was really to go first, with Mr. Airy. To effect
this, however, she must explain it to Mrs. Sabine, the
lady of highest rank.

** So we went out. Professor Airy and myself. Profes-
sor Powell and Mrs. Sabine, General Sabine and Mrs.
Powell, Mr. Charles Struve and Miss S., Mr. Main,
Mrs. Airy, and Professor Struve.

"General Sabine is a small man, gray haired and
sharp featured, about seventy years old. He smiles
very readily, and is chatty and sociable at once. He
speaks with more quickness and ease than most of the

lOO MARIA MITCHELL

Englishmen I have met. Mrs. Sabine is very agreea-
ble and not a bit of a blue-stocking.

" The chat at table was general and very interesting.
Mr. Airy says, *The best of a good dinner is the
amount of talk.' He talked of the great * Leviathan '
which he and Struve had just visited, then anecdotes
were told by others, then they went on to comic poetry.
Mr. Airy repeated * The Lost Heir,' by Hood. Gen-
eral Sabine told droll anecdotes, and the point was often
lost upon me, because of the local allusions. One of
his anecdotes was this : * Archbishop Whately did not
like a professor named Robert Daly; he said the Irish
were a very contented people, they were satisfied with
one bob daily,' I found that a * bob ' is a shilling.

** When the dinner was over, the ladies left the room,
and the gentlemen remained over their wine ; but not for
long, for Mr. Airy does not Hke it, and Struve hates it.

" Then, before tea, others dropped in from the neigh-
borhood, and the tea was served in the drawing-room,
handed round informally.

"August 15. Westminster Abbey interested me
more than I had expected. We went into the chapels
and admired the sculpture when the guide told us we
ought, and stopped with interest sometimes over some
tomb which he did not point out.

** I stepped aside reverently when I found I was
standing on the stone which covers the remains of Dr.
Johnson. It is cracked across the middle. Garrick
lies by the side of Johnson, and I thought at first that
Goldsmith lay near ; but it is only a monument — the
body is interred in Temple churchyard.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 10 1

** You are continually misled in this way unless yop
refer at every minute to your guide-book, and to go
through Europe reading a guide-book which you can
read at home seems to be a waste of time. On the
stone beneath which Addison lies is engraved the verse
from Tickell's ode:

** * Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest,' etc.

** The base of Newton's monument is of white marble,
a solid mass large enough to support a coffin ; upon that
a sarcophagus rests. The remains are not enclosed
within. As I stepped aside I found I had been stand-
ing upon a slab marked * Isaac Newton,* beneath which
the great man's remains lie.

" On the side of the sarcophagus is a white marble
slab, with figures in bas-relief. One of these imaginary
beings appears to be weighing the planets on a steel-
yard. They hang like peas ! Another has a pair of
bellows and is blowing a fire. A third is tending a
plant.

" On this sarcophagus reclines a figure of Newton, of
full size. He leans his right arni upon four thick vol-
umes, probably * The Principia,' and he points his left
hand to a globe above his head on which the goddess
Urania sits ; she leans upon another large book.

** Newton's head is very fine, and is probably a por-
trait. The left hand, which is raised, has lost two
fingers. I thought at first that this had been the work
of some * undevout astronomer,* but when I came to
* read up * I found that at one time soldiers were
quartered in the abbey, and probably one of them

102 MARIA MITCHELL

wanted a finger with which to crowd the tobacco into
his pipe, and so broke off one.

"August 17. To-day we have been to the far-
famed British Museum. I carried an * open sesame '
in the form of a letter given to me by Professor Henry,
asking for me special attention from all societies with
which the * Smithsonian ' at Washington is connected.

** I gave the paper first to a police officer ; a police
officer is met at every turn in London. He handed it
to another official, who said, * You'd better go to the
secretary.'

" I walked in the direction towards which he pointed,
a long way, until I found the secretary. He called
another man, and asked him to show me whatever I
wanted to see.

** This man took me into another room, and con-
signed me to still another man — the fifth to whom I
had been referred. No. 5 was an inteUigent and polite
person, and he began to talk about America at once.

"I asked to see anything which had belonged to
Newton, and he told me they had one letter only, — from
Newton to Leibnitz, — which he showed me. It was
written in Latin, with diagrams and formulae inter-
spersed. The reply of Leibnitz, copied by Newton,
was also in their collection, and an order from Newton
written while he was director of the mint.

** No. 5 also showed me the illuminated manuscripts of
the collection; they are kept locked in glass-topped
cases, and a curtain protects them from the light. We
saw also the oldest copy of the Bible in the World.

**The art of printing has brought incalculable bless-

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 103

ings; but as I looked at a neat manuscript book by
Queen Elizabeth, copied from another as a present to
her father, I could not help thinking it was much
better than worsted work!

"A much-worn prayer-book was shown me, said to be
the one used by Lady Jane Grey when on the scaffold.
Nothing makes me more conscious that I am on foreign
soil than the constant recurrence of associations con-
nected with the executioner's block. We hung the
Quakers and we hung the witches, but we are careful not
to remember the localities of our barbarisms ; we show
instead the Plymouth Rock or the Washington Elm.

** Among other things, we were shown the * Magna
Charta ' — a few fragments of worn-out paper on which
some words could be traced ; now carefully preserved
in a frame, beneath a glass.

** Thus far England has impressed me seriously; I
cannot imagine how it has ever earned the name of
* Merrie England.'

** August 19. There are four great men whose
haunts I mean to seek, and on whose footsteps I mean
to stand: Newton, Shakspere, Milton, and Johnson.

** To-day I told the driver to take me to St. Martin's,
where the guide-book says that Newton lived. He put
me down at the Newton Hotel, but I looked in vain to
Its top to see anything like an observatory.

** I went into a wine-shop near, and asked a girl, who
was pouring out a dram, in which house Newton lived.
She pointed, not to the hotel, but to a house next to a
church, and said, * That's it — don't you see a place on
the top? That's where he used to study nights.'

104 MARIA MITCHELL

" It is a little, oblong-shaped observatory, built appar-
ently of wood, and blackened by age. The house is a
good-looking one — it seems to be of stone. The girl
said the rooms were let for shops.

" Next I told the driver to take me to Fleet street,
to Gough square, and to Bolt court, where Johnson
lived and died.

" Bolt court lies on Fleet street, and it is but few steps
along a narrow passage to the house, which is now a
hotel, where Johnson died; but you must walk on
farther through the narrow passage, a little fearful to a
woman, to see the place where he wrote the dictionary.
The house is so completely within a court, in which
nothing but brick walls could be seen, that one wonders
what the charm of London could be, to induce one to
live in that place. But a great city always draws to
itself the great minds, and there Johnson probably
found his enjoyment.

** August 27. We took St. Paul's Church to-day.
We took tickets for the vaults, the bell, the crypt, the
whispering-gallery, the clock and all. We did not know
what was before us. It was a little tiresome as far as
the library and the room of Nelson's trophies, but to
my surprise, when the guide said, * Go that way for the
clock,' he did not take the lead, but pointed up a stair-
case, and I found myself the pioneer in the narrowest
and darkest staircase I ever ascended. It was really
perfect darkness in some of the places, and we had to
feel our way. We all took a long breath when a gleam
of light came in at some narrow windows scattered
along. At the top, in front of the clock works, stood a

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 05

woman, who began at once to tell us the statistics of the
pendulum, to which recital I did not choose to listen.
She was not to go down with us, and, panting with
fatigue and trembling with fright, we groped our way
down again.

" There was another long, but easy, ascent to the
* whispering-gallery,' which is a fine place from which
to look down upon the interior of the church. The
man in attendance looked like a respectable elderly
gentleman. He told us to go to the opposite side of
the gallery, and he would whisper to us. We went
around, and, worn out with fatigue, dropped upon a
bench.

" The man began to whisper, putting his mouth to an
opening in the wall ; we heard noises, but could not
tell what he said.

** To my amazement, this very respectable-looking
elderly gentleman, as we passed him in going out,
whispered again, and as this time he put his mouth
close to my ear, I understood ! He said, * If you will
give anything for the whisper, it will be gratefully
received.' There are notices all over the church forbid-
ding fees, and I felt that the man was a beggar at best
— more properly a pickpocket.

" A figure of Dr. Johnson stands in one of the aisles
of the church. It must be like him, for it is exceed-
ingly ugly.

" September 3. We have been three weeks in Lon-
don * out of season,' but with plenty of letters. At
present we have as many acquaintances as we desire.
Last night we were at the opera, to-night we go out to

I06 MARIA MITCHELL

dine; and to-morrow evening to a dance, the next day to
Admiral Smyth's.

** The opera fatigued me, as it always does. I tired
my eyes and ears in the vain effort to appreciate it.
Mario was the great star of the evening, but I knew no
difference.

" One little circumstance showed me how an Ameri-
can, with the best intentions, may offend against good
manners. American-like we had secured very good
seats, were in good season, and as comfortable as the
very narrow seats would permit us to be, before most
of the audience arrived. The house filled, and we sat
at our ease, feeling our importance, and quite uncon-
scious that we were guilty of any impropriety. While
the curtain was down, I heard a voice behind me say to
the gentleman who was with us, * Is the lady on your
left with you ? ' — * Yes,' said Mr. R. — * She wears a
bonnet, which is not according to rule.' — * Too late
now,* said Mr. R. — * It is my fault,' said the attendant;
* I ought not to have admitted her ; I thought it was a
hood.'

" I was really in hopes that I should be ordered out,
for I was exceedingly fatigued and should have been
glad of some fresh air. On looking around, I saw that
only the * pit ' wore bonnets.

" September 6. We left London yesterday for
Aylesbury. It is two hours by railroad. Like all rail-
roads in England, it runs seemingly through a garden.
In many cases flowers are cultivated by the roadside.

" From Aylesbury to Stone, the residence of Ad-
miral Smyth, it is two miles of stage-coach riding.

FIRST EUROPE AN^ TOUR 107

Stage-coaches are now very rare in England, and I
was delighted with the chance for a ride.

** We found the stage-coach crowded. The driver
asked me if we were for St. John's Lodge, and on my
replying in the affirmative gave me a note which Mrs.
Smyth had written to him, to ask for inside seats. The
note had reached him too late, and he said we must
go on the outside. He brought a ladder and we got
up. For a ininute I thought, * What a height to fall,
from ! ' but the afternoon was so lovely that I soon for-
got the danger and enjoyed the drive. There wejr.e six:
passengers on top.

"Aylesbury is a small town, and Stone is a veji)c- S43ft»lll
village. The driver stopped at what seemed to»» be at
cultivated field, and told me that I was at my journey^s
end. On looking down I saw a wheelbarrow near the
fence, and I remembered that Mrs. Smyth had said that
one would be waiting for our luggage, and I soon saw
Mrs. Smyth and her daughter coming towards us. It
was a walk of about an eighth of a mile to the * Lodge ' —
a pleasant cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden.

" Admiral Smyth's family go to a little church seven
hundred years old, standing in the midst of tombstones
and surrounded by thatched cottages. English scenery
seems now (September) much like our Southern scen-
ery in April — rich and lovely, but wanting mountains
and water. An English village could never be mistaken
for an American one : the outline against the sky differs ;
a thatched cottage makes a very wavy line on the blue
above.

" We find enough in St. John's Lodge, in the admiral's

J08 MARIA MITCHELL

library, and in the society of the cultivated members of
his family to interest us for a long time.

** The admiral himself is upwards of sixty years of
age, noble-looking, loving a good joke, an antiquarian,
and a good astronomer. I picked up many an anec-
dote from him, and many curious bits of learning.

" He tells a good story, illustrative of his enthusiasm
when looking at a crater in the moon. He says the
night was remarkably fine, and he applied higher and
higher powers to his glass until he seemed to look
down into the abyss, and imagining himself standing on
its verge he felt himself falling in, and drew back with a
shudder which lasted even after the illusion was over.

" In speaking of Stratford-upon-Avon, the admiral
told me that the Lucy family, one of whose ancestors
drove Shakspere from his grounds, and who is cari-
catured in Justice Shallow, still resides on the same spot
as in Shakspere's time. He says no family ever re-
tained their characteristics more decidedly.

'* Some years ago one of this family was invited to a
Shakspere dinner. He resented the well-meant invi-
tation, saying they must surely have forgotten how that
person treated his ancestor !

** The amateur astronomers of England are numer-
ous, but they are not like those of America.

** In America a poor schoolmaster, who has some
bright boys who ask questions, buys a glass and be-
comes a star-gazer, without time and almost without
instruments ; or a watchmaker must know the time, and
therefore watches the stars as time-keepers. In almost
all cases they are hard-working men.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 109

** In England it is quite otherwise. A wealthy gen-
tleman buys a telescope as he would buy a library, as
an ornament to his house.

** Admiral Smyth says that no family is quite civilized
unless it possesses a copy of some encyclopaedia and a
telescope. The English gentleman uses both for
amusement. If he is a man of philosophical mind he
soon becomes an astronomer, or if a benevolent man he
perceives that some friend in more limited circumstances
might use it well, and he offers the telescope to him, or
if an ostentatious man he hires some young astron-
omer of talent, who comes to his observatory and makes
a name for him. Then the queen confers the honor of
knighthood, not upon the young man, but upon the
owner of the telescope. Sir James South was knighted
for this reason.

" We have been visiting Hartwell House, an old
baronial residence, now the property of Dr. Lee, a
whimsical old man.

** This house was for years the residence of Louis
XVIII., and his queen died here. The drawing-room
is still kept as in those days ; the blue damask on the
walls has been changed by time to a brown. The
rooms are spacious and lofty, the chimney-pieces of
richly carved marble. The ceiling of one room has fine
bas-relief allegorical figures.

"Books of antiquarian value are all around — one
whole floor is covered with them. They are almost
never opened. In some of the rooms paintings are on
the walls above the doors.

" Dr. Lee's modern additions are mostly paintings of

no MARIA MITCHELL

♦ himself and a former wife, and are in very bad taste.

He has, however, two busts of Mrs. Somerville, from
which I received the impression that she is handsome,
but Mrs. Smyth tells me she is not so ; certainly she is
sculpturesque.

"The royal family, on their retreat from Hartwell

House, left their prayer-book, and it still remains on its

stand. The room of the ladies of the bedchamber is

^ - papered, and the figure of a pheasant is the prevailing

characteristic of the paper. The room is called * The

Pheasant Room.' One of the birds has been carefully

j cut out, and, it is said, was carried away as a memento

by one of the damsels.

** Dr. Lee is second cousin to Sir George Lee, who
died childless. He inherits the estate, but not the title.
The estate has belonged to the Lees for four hundred
years. As the doctor was a Lee only through his
mother, he was obliged to take her name on his acces-
sion to the property. He applied to Parliament to be
permitted to assume the title, and, being refused, from a
strong Tory he became a Liberal, and delights in curry-
ing favor with the lowest classes ; he has twice married
below his rank. Being remotely connected with the
Hampdens, he claims John Hampden as one of his
family, and keeps a portrait of him in a conspicuous
place.

"A summer-house on the grounds was erected by
Lady Elizabeth Lee, and some verses inscribed on its
walls, written by her, show that the Lees have not
always been fools.

** But Dr. Lee has his way of doing good. Being

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR III

fond of astronomy, he has bought an eight and a half
feet equatorial telescope, and with a wisdom which one
could scarcely expect, he employed Admiral Smyth to
construct an observatory. He has also a fine transit
instrument, and the admiral, being his near neighbor,
has the privilege of using the observatory as his own
In the absence of the Lees he has a private key, with
which he admits himself and Mrs. Smyth. They make
the observations (Mrs. Smyth is a very clever astron-
omer), sleep in a room called 'The Admiral's Room,'
find breakfast prepared for them in the morning, and
return to their own house when they choose.

** I saw in the observatory a timepiece with a
double second-hand ; one of these could be stopped by
a touch, and would, in that way, show an observer the
instant when he thought a phenomenon, as an occulta-
tion for instance, had occurred, and yet permit him to
go on with his count of the seconds, and, if necessary,
correct his first impression.

"Admiral Smyth is a hard worker, but I suspect that
many of the amateur astronomers of England are Dr.
Lees — rich men who, as a hobby, ride astronomy and
employ a good astronomer. Dr. Lee gives the use of
a good instrument to the curate ; another to Mr. Pay-
son, of Cambridge, who has lately found a little planet.

** I saw at Admiral Smyth's some excellent photo-
graphs of the moon, but in England they have not yet
photographed the stars."

112 MARIA MITCHELL

CHAPTER VI

1857

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR CONTINUED — CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY —

AMBLESIDE MISS SOUTHEY — THE HERSCHELS — A LONDON

ROUT EDINBORO* AND GLASGOW OBSERVATORIES " REFLEC-
TIONS AND MUTTERINGS"

" If any one wishes to know the customs of centuries
ago in England, let him go to Cambridge.

** Sitting at the window of the hotel, he will see the
scholars, the fellows, the masters of arts, and the
masters of colleges passing along the streets in their
different gowns. Very unbecoming gowns they are, in
all cases ; and much as the wearers must be accustomed
to them, they seem to step awkwardly, and to have an
ungraceful feminine touch in their motions.

** Everything that you see speaks of the olden time.
Even the images above the arched entrance to the courts
around which the buildings stand are crumbling slowly,
and the faces have an unearthly expression.

" If the visitor is fortunate enough to have an intro-
duction to one of the college professors, he will be taken
around the buildings, to the libraries, the 'Combina-
tion ' room to which the fellows retire to chat over their
wine, and perhaps even to the kitchen.

" Our first knowledge of Cambridge was the entrance
to Trinity College and the Master's Lodge.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR II3

'* We arrived in Cambridge just about at lunch time
— one o*clock.

** Mrs. Airy said to me, 'Although we are invited to
be guests of Dr. Whewell, he is quite too mighty a
man to come to meet us.' Her sons, however, met us,
and we walked with them to Dr. Whewell's.

"The Master's Lodge, where Dr. Whewell lives, is one
of the buildings composing the great pile of Trinity
College. One of the rooms in the lodge still remains
nearly as in the time of Henry VHI. It is immense in
size, and has two oriel windows hung with red velvet.
In this room the queen holds her court when she is in
Cambridge ; for the lodge then becomes a palace, and
the * master ' retires to some other apartments, and comes
to dinner only when asked.

'* It is said that the present master does not much
like to submit to this position.

'* In this great room hang full-length portraits of
Henry and Elizabeth. On another wall is a portrait of
Newton, and on a third the sweet face of a young girl.
Dr. Whewell's niece, of whom I heard him speak as
' Kate.'

*' Dr. Whewell received us in this room, standing on
a rug before an open fireplace ; a wood fire was burn-
ing cheerily. Mrs. Airy's daughter, a young girl, was
with us.

** Dr. Whewell shook hands with us, and we stood.
I was very tired, but we continued to stand. In an
American gentleman's house I should have asked if
I might sit, and should have dropped upon a chair;
here, of course, I continued to stand. After, perhaps,

114 MARIA MITCHELL

fifteen minutes. Dr. Whewell said, 'Will you sit?' and
the four of us dropped upon chairs as if shot !

" The master is a man to be noted, even physically.
He is much above ordinary size, and, though now gray-
haired, would be extraordinarily handsome if it were
not for an expression of ill-temper about the mouth.

" An Englishmen is proud ; a Cambridge man is the
proudest of Englishmen ; and Dr. Whewell, the proud-
est of Cambridge men.

" In the opinion of a Cambridge man, to be master
of Trinity is to be master of the world !

" At lunch, to which we stayed. Dr. Whewell talked
about American writers, and was very severe upon
them ; some of them were friends of mine, and it was
not pleasant. But I was especially hurt by a remark
which he made afterwards. Americans are noted in
England for their use of slang. The English suppose
that the language of Sam Slick or of Nasby is the
language used in cultivated society. They do not seem
to understand it, and I have no doubt to-day that
Lowell's comic poems are taken seriously. So at this
table. Dr. Whewell, wishing to say that we would do
something in the way of sight-seeing very thoroughly,
turning to me, said, * We'll go the whole hog, Miss
Mitchell, as you say in America.'

** I turned to the young American girl who sat next
to me, and said, * Miss S., did you ever hear that expres-
sion except on the street? ' * Never,' she replied.

" Afterwards he said to me, * You in America think
you know something about the English language,
and you get out your Webster's dictionary, and your

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 115

Worcester's dictionary, but we here in Cambridge think
we know rather more about English than you do.'

** After lunch we went to the observatory. The
Cambridge Observatory has the usual number of
meridian instruments, but it has besides a good equa-
torial telescope of twenty feet in length, mounted in
the English style ; for Mr. Airy was in Cambridge at
the time of its establishment. In this pretty observa-
tory, overlooking the peaceful plains, with some small
hills in the distance, Mr. and Mrs. Airy passed the first
year of their married life.

** Professor Challis, the directoi*> is exceedingly short,
thick-headed (in appearance), and, like many of the
English, thick-tongued. While I was looking at the
instruments, Mrs. Airy came into the equatorial house,
bringing Mr. Adams, the rival of Leverrier,^ — another
short man, but bright-looking, with dark hair and eyes,
and again the thick voice, this time with a nasal twang.
He is a fellow of Pembroke College, and master of arts.
If Mr. Adams had become a fellow of his own college,
St. John, he must have gone into holy orders, as it is
called ; this he was not willing to do ; he accepted a
fellowship from Pembroke.

" Mr. Adams is a merry little man, loves games
with children, and is a favorite with young ladies.

" At 6.30 we went again to the lodge to dine. We
were a little late, and the servant was in a great hurry to
announce us ; but I made him wait until my gloves were
on, though not buttoned. He announced us with a
loud voice, and Dr. Whewell came forward to receive

* See Chapter VII.

Il6 MARIA MITCHELL

us. Being announced in this way, the other guests do
not wait for an introduction. There was a group of
guests in the drawing-room, and those nearest me spoke
to me at once.

" Dinner was announced immediately, and Dr. Whe-
well escorted me downstairs, across an immense hall,
to the dining-room, outside of which stood the waiters,
six in number, arranged in a straight line, in livery, of
course. One of them had a scarlet vest, short clothes,
and drab coat.

" As I sat next to the master, I had a good deal of talk
with him. He was very severe upon Americans ; hd said
that Emerson did not write good English, and copied
Carlyle ! I thought his severity reached really to
discourtesy, and I think he perceived it when he asked
me if I knew Emerson personally, and I replied that
I did, and that I valued my acquaintance with him
highly.

" I got a little chance to retort, by telling him that we
had outgrown Mrs. Hemans in America, and that we
now read Mrs. Browning more. He laughed at it, and
said that Mrs. Browning's poetry was so coarse that he
could not tolerate it, and he was amused to hear that
any people had got above Mrs. Hemans; and he asked
me if we had outgrown Homer ! To which I replied
that they were not similar cases.

" Altogether, there was a tone of satire in Dr. Whe-
well's remarks which I did not think amiable.

" There were, as there are very commonly in English
society, some dresses too low for my taste ; and the wine-
drinking was universal, so that I had to make a special

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR II7

point of getting a glass of water, and was afraid I might
drink all there was on the table !

** Before the dessert came on, saucers were placed
before each guest, and a little rose-water dipped into
them from a silver basin ; then each guest washed his
face thoroughly, dipping his napkin into the saucer.
Professor Willis, who sat next to me, told me that this
was a custom peculiar to Cambridge, and dating from
its earliest times.

** The finger bowls came on afterwards, as usual.

** It is customary for the lady of the house or the
' first lady ' to turn to her nearest neighbor at the close
of dinner and say, ' Shall we retire to the drawing-
foom ? ' Now, there was no lady of the house, and I
was in the position of first lady. They might have sat
there for a thousand years before I should have thought
of it. I drew on my gloves when the other ladies drew
on theirs, and then we waited. Mrs. Airy saw the
dilemma, made the little speech, and the gentlemen
escorted us to the door, and then returned to their
wine.

" We went back to the drawing-room and had coffee ;
after coffee new guests began to come, and we went
into the magnificent room with the oriel windows.

"Professor Sedgwick came early — an old man of
seventy- four, already a little shattered and subject to
giddiness. He is said to be very fond of young ladies
even now, and when younger made some heartaches ;
for he could not give up his fellowship and leave Cam -
bridge for a wife; which, to me, is very unmanly. He
is considered the greatest geologist in England, and uf

Il8 MARIA MITCHELL

course they would say * in the world/ and is much
loved by all who know him. He came to Cambridge
a young man, and the elms which he saw planted are
now sturdy trees. It is pleasant to hear him talk of
Cambridge and its growth ; he points to the stately trees
and says, * Those trees don't look as old as I, and they
are not.'

** I did not see Professor Adams at that time, but I
spent the whole of Monday morning walking about the
college with him. I asked him to show me the place
where he made his computations for Neptune, and he
was evidently well pleased to do so.

"We laughed over a roll, which we saw in the
College library, containing a list of the ancestors of
Henry VIII. ; among them was Jupiter.

" Professor Adams tells me that in Wales genealogi-
cal charts go so far back that about half-way between
the beginning and the present day you find this
record : * About this time the world was created ' !

** November 2. At lunch to-day Dr. Whewell was
more interesting than I had seen him ^before. He
asked me about Laura Bridgman, and said that he knew
a similar case. He contended, in opposition to Mrs.
Airy and myself, that loss of vision was preferable to
loss of hearing, because it shut one out less from human
companionship.

** Dr. Whewell's self-respect and immense self-esteem
led him to imperiousness of manner which touches the
border of discourtesy. He loves a good joke, but his
jests are serious. He writes verses that are touchingly
beautiful, but it is difficult to believe, in his presence,

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 19

that he writes them. Mrs. Airy said that Dr. Whewell
and I riled each other !

"I was at an evening party, and the Airy boys,
young men of eighteen and twenty, were present. They
stood the whole time, occasionally leaning against a
table or the piano, in their blue silk gowns. I urged
them to sit. * Of course not,* they said ; ' no under-
graduate sits in the master's presence ! *

"I went to three services on ' Scarlet Sunday,' for the
sake of seeing all the sights.

** The costumes of Cambridge and Oxford are very
amusing, and show, more than anything I have seen, the
old-fogyism of English ways. Dr. Whewell wore, on
this occasion, a long gown reaching nearly to his feet,
of rich scarlet, and adorned with flowing ribands. The
ribands did not match the robe, but were more of a
crimson.

" I wondered that a strong-minded man like Dr.
Whewell could tolerate such trappings for a moment ;
but it is said that he is rather proud of them, and loves
all the etiquette of the olden time, as also, it is said,
does the queen.

" In these robes Dr. Whewell escorted me to church
— and of course we were a great sight !

" Before dinner, on this Scarlet Sunday, there was an
interval when the master was evidently tried to know
what to do with me. At length he hit upon an expedi-
ent. *Boys,* he said to the young Airys, 'take Miss
Mitchell on a walk ! *

** I was a little surprised to find myself on a walk,
< nolens volens ; * so as soon as we were out of sight of

120

MARIA MITCHELL

the master of Trinity, I said, * Now, young gentlemen,
as I do not want to go to walk, we won't go ! '

" It was hard for me to become accustomed t6 Eng-
lish ideas of caste. I heard Professor Sedgwick say
that Miss Herschel, the daughter of Sir John and niece
to Caroline, married a Gordon. ' Such a great match
for her ! ' he added ; and when I asked what match could
be great for a daughter of the Herschels, I was told that
she had married one of the queen's household, and was
asked to sit in the presence of the queen !

" When I hear a missionary tell that the pariah caste
sit on the ground, the peasant caste lift themselves by
the thickness of a leaf, and the next rank by the
thickness of a stalk, it seems to me that the heathen
has reached a high state of civilization — precisely that
which Victoria has reached when she permits a Her-
schel to sit in her presence !

** The University of Cambridge consists of sixteen
colleges. I was told that, of these. Trinity leads and
St. John comes next.

** Trinity has always led in mathematics ; it boasts of
Newton and Byron among its graduates. Milton be-
longed to Christ Church College; the mulberry tree
which he planted still flourishes.

** Even to-day, a young scholar of Trinity expressed
his regret to me that Milton did not belong to the
college in which he himself studied. He pointed out
the rooms occupied by Newton, and showed us * New-
ton's Bridge,' * which will surely fall when a greater
man than he walks over it ' !

" Milton first planned the great poem, * Paradise Lost/

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 121

as a drama, and this manuscript, kept within a glass
case, is opened to the page on which the dramatis
persona are planned and replanned. On the opposite
page is a part of * Lycidas,' neatly written and with few
corrections.

" The most beautiful of the college buildings is
King*s Chapel. A Cambridge man is sure to take you
to one of the bridges spanning the wretched little
stream called the * Silver Cam/ that you may see the
architectural beauties of this building.

" It is well to attend service in one or the other of
the chapels, to see assembled the young men, who are
almost all the sons of the nobility or gentry. The pro-
priety of their conduct struck me.

"The fellows of the colleges are chosen from the
' scholars ' who are most distinguished, as the * scholars '
are chosen from the undergraduates. They receive an
income so long as they remain connected with the
college and unmarried.

** They have also the use of rooms in the college ;
they dine in the same hall with the undergraduates, but
their tables are placed upon a raised dais ; they have
also little garden-places given them.

" ' What are their duties ? * I asked Mr. Airy. ' None
at all ; they are the college. It would not be a seat of
learning without them.'

** They say in Cambridge that Dr. Whewell's book,
* Plurality of Worlds,' reasons to this end : The planets
were created for this world ; this world for man ; man
for England ; England for Cambridge ; and Cambridge
for Dr. Whewell!

122 MARIA MITCHELL

"Ambleside, September 13. We have spent the
Sunday in ascending a mountain. I have a minute
route marked out for me by Professor Airy, who has
rambled among the lakes and mountains of Cumber-
land and Westmoreland for months, and says that no
man lives who knows them better than he,

" In accordance with these directions, I took a one-
horse carriage this morning for Coniston Waters, in
order to ascend the * Old Man/ The waiter at the
* Salutation ' at Ambleside, which we made head-
quarters, told me that I could not make the ascent, as
the day would not be fine ; but I have not travelled six
months for nothing, and I knew he was saying, * You
are fine American geese ; you are not to leave my house
until you have been well plucked ! ' — which threat he will
of course keep, but I shall see all the * Old Men ' that I
choose. So I borrowed the waiter's umbrella, when he
said it would rain, and off we went in an open carriage,
a drive of seven miles, up hill and down dale, among
mountains and around ponds (lakes they called them),
in the midst of rich lands and pretty mansions, with
occasionally a castle, and once a ruin, to diversify the
scenery.

"Arrived at Coniston Hotel, the waiter said the
same thing : * It's too cloudy to ascend the " Old Man ;" '
but as soon as it was found that if it was too cloudy we
did not intend to stay, it cleared off amazingly fast, and
the ponies were ordered. I thought at first of walking
up, but, having a value for my feet and not liking to
misuse them, I mounted a pony and walked him.

** He was beautifully stupid, but I could not help

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 23

thinking of Henry Colman, the agriculturist, who, when
in England, went on a fox-hunt. He said, * Think of
my poor wife's old husband leaping a fence ! '

** But I soon forgot any fear, for the pony needed noth-
ing from me or the guide, but scrambled about any
way he chose; and the scenery was charming, for
although the mountains are not very high, they are
thrown together very beautifully and remind me of
those of the Hudson Highlands. Then the little lakes
were lovely, and occasionally we came to a tarn or pond,
and exceedingly small waterfalls were rushing about
everywhere, without any apparent object in view, but
evidently looking for something. And spite of the
weatherwise head-waiter of the * Salutation ' and of
him of Coniston Inn, the day was beautiful. We had
to give up the ponies when we were half a mile from
the top, and clamber up ourselves. The guide was
very intelligent, and pointed out the lakes, Windermere,
Coniston ; and the mountains, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, and
Saddleback ; but at one time he spoke a name that I
couldn't understand, and forgetting that I was in Eng-
land and not in America, I asked him to spell it. He
replied, * Theys call it so always.' He did not fail, how-
ever, to ask questions like a Yankee, if he couldn't spell
like one. 'Which way be ye coming? ' — * From Amer-
ica.' — * Ye'U be going to Scotland like?' — * Yes.' —
* Ye'U be spending much money before ye are home
again.'

"When we were quite on top of the mountain I
asked what the white glimmering was in the distance,
and he said it was, what I supposed, an arm of the sea.

124 MARIA MITCHELL

" The shadows of the flying clouds were very pretty
falling on the hills around us, and the villages in the
valleys beneath looked like white dots on the green,

*' Sunday, Sept, 20, 1857. We have been to see Miss
Sou they to-day. I sent the letter which Mrs. Airy gave
me yesterday, and with it a note saying that I would
call to-day if convenient.

** Miss Southey replied at once, saying that she should
be happy to see me. She lives in a straggling, irregular
cottage, like most of the cottages around Keswick, but
beautifully situated, though far from the lake.

" Southey himself lived at Greta Hall, a much finer
place, for many years, but he never owned it, and the
gentleman who bought it will permit no one to see it.

" Miss Southey*s house is overgrown with climbing
plants, has windows opening to the ground, and is really
a summer residence, not a good winter home.

** When Southey, in his decline, married a second
wife, the family scattered, and this daughter, the only
unmarried one, left him.

" We were shown into a pleasant parlor comfortably
furnished, especially with books and engravings, portraits
of Southey, Wordsworth, and others.

** Miss Southey soon came down ; she is really pretty,
having the fresh English complexion and fair hair.
She seems to be a very simple, pleasant person ; chatty,
but not too much so. She is much engrossed by the
care of three of her brother*s children, an old aunt, and
a servant, who, having been long in the family, has be-
come a dependant. Miss Southey spoke at once of the
Americans whom she had known, Ticknor being one.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 125

The old aunt asked after a New York lady who had
visited Southey at Greta Hall, but her niece reminded
her that it must have been before I was born!

" Miss Southey said that her father felt that he knew
as many Americans as Englishmen, and that she wanted
very much to go to America. I told her that she
would be in danger of being ' lionized ; * she said, * Oh,
I should like that, for of course it is gratifying to know
how much my father was valued there.'

** I asked after the children, and Miss Southey said
that the little boy had called out to her, * Oh ! Aunt
Katy, the Ameriky ladies have come !

" The three children were called in ; the boy, about
six years old, of course wouldn't speak to me.

'* The best portrait of Southey in his daughter's col-
lection is a profile in wax — a style that I have seen
several times in England, and which I think very pretty.

" We went down to Lodore, the scene of the poem,
'How does the Water come Down,' etc., and found it
about as large as the other waterfalls around here — a
little dripping of water among the stones.

COLLINGWOOD, NoV. 1 4, 1 85 7.

My dear Father : This is Sir John Herschel's place. I came
last night just at dusk.

According to English ways, I ought to have written a note,
naming the hour at which I should reach Etchingham, which is
four miles from Collingwood ; but when I left Liverpool I went
directly on, and a letter would have arrived at the same time that
I did. I stopped in Hondon one night only, changed my lodging-
house, that I might pay a pound a week only for letting my trunk
live in a room, instead of two pounds, and started off again.

I reached Etchingham at ten minutes past four, took a cab, and

126 MARIA MITCHELL

set off for Sir John's. It is a large brick house, no way handsome,
but surrounded by fine grounds, with beautifiil trees and a very
large pond.

The family were at dinner, and I was shown into the drawing-
room.

There was just the light of a coal fire, and as I stood before it
Sir John bustled in, an old man, much bent, with perfectly white
hair standing out every way. He reached both hands to me, and
said, ** We had no letter and so did not expect you, but you are
always welcome in this house." Lady Herschel followed — very
noble looking ; she does not look as old as I, but of course must
be ; but English women, especially of her station, do not wear out
as we do, who are ** Jacks at all trades."

I found a fire in my room, and a cup of tea and crackers were
immediately sent up.

The Herschels have several children ; I have not seen Caroline,
Louise, William, and Alexander, but Belle, and Amelie, and Marie,
and Julie, and Rosa, and Francesca, and Constance, and John are at
home !

The children are not handsome, but are good-looking, and well
brought up of course, and highly educated. The children all
come to table, which is not common in England. Think what a
table they must set when the whole twelve are at home I

The first object that struck me in the house was Borden's map
of Massachusetts, hanging in the hall opposite the entrance.
Over the mantelpiece in the dining-room is a portrait of Sir
William Herschel. In the parlor is a portrait of Caroline Herschel,
and busts of Sir William, Sir John, and the eldest daughter.

I spent the evening in looking at engravings, sipping tea, and
talking. Sir John is like the elder Mr. Bond, except that he talks
more readily ; but he is womanly in his nature, not a tyrant like
Whewell. Sir John is a better listener than any man I have met
in England. He joins in all the chit-chat, is one of the domestic
circle, and tells funny little anecdotes. (So do Whewell and
Airy.)

The Herschels know Abbot Lawrence and Edward Everett —

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 27

and everywhere these two have left a good impression. But I
am certainly mortified by anecdotes that I hear of ** pushing"

Americans. Mrs. sought an introduction to Sir John Her-

schel to tell him about an abridgment of his Astronomy which
she had made, and she intimated to him that in consequence of
her abridgment his work was, or would be, much more widely
known in America. Lady Herschel told me of it, and she remarked,
** I believe Sir John was not much pleased, for he does not
like abridgments." I told her that I had never heard of the
abridgment.

There are other guests in the house : a lady whose sister was
among those killed in India ; and her husband, who is an officer in
the army. We have all been playing at ** Spelling " this evening,
with the letters, as we did at home last winter.

Sunday, 15th. I thought of going to London to-day, but was
easily persuaded to stay and go with Lady Herschel to-morrow.
All this afternoon I have spent listening to Sir John, who has
shown me his father's manuscript, his aunt's, beautifully neat, and
he told me about his Cape observations.

The telescope used at the Cape of Good Hope lies in the barn
(the glass, of course, taken care of) unused ; and Sir John now
occupies himself with writing only. He made many drawings at
the Cape, which he showed me, and very good ones they are.
Lady Herschel offers me a letter to Mrs. Somerville, who is god-
mother to one of her children. I am afraid I shall have no letter
to Leverrier, for every one seems to dislike him. Lady Herschel
says he is one of the few persons whom she ever asked for an
autograph ; he was her guest, and he refused !

Just as I was coming away, Sir John bustled up to me with a
sheet of paper, saying that he thought I would like some of his
aunt's handwriting and he would give it to me. He had before
given me one of his own calculations ; he says if there were no
** war, pestilence, or femine," and one pair of human beings had
been put upon the globe at the time of Cheops, they would not
only now fill the earth, but if they stood upon each other's heads,
they would reach a hundred times the distance to Neptune !

128 MARIA MITCHELL

I turned over their scrap-books, and Sir John^s poetry is much
better than many of the specimens they had carefully kept, by Sir
William Hamilton. Sir William Hamilton's sister had some
specimens in the book, and also Lady Herschel and her brother.

Lady Herschel is the head of the house — so is Mrs. Airy — so,
I suspect, is the wife in all well-ordered households ! I per-
ceived that Sir John did not take a cup of tea until his wife said,
*♦ You can have some, my dear."

Mr. Airy waits and waits, and then says, ** My dear, I shall lose
all my flesh if I don't have something to eat and drink."

I am hoping to get to Paris next week, about the 23d. I have
had just what I wanted in England, as to society.

" November 26. A few days ago I received a card,
* Mrs. Baden Powell, at home November 25.' Of course
I did not know if it was a tea party or a wedding recep-
tion. So I appealed to Mrs. Airy. She said, * It is a
London rout. I never went to one, but you'll find a
crowd and a good many interesting people.'

" I took a cab, and went at nine o'clock. The servant
who opened the door passed me to another who showed
me the cloak-room. The girl who took my shawl num-
bered it and gave me a ticket, as they would at a public
exhibition. Then she pointed to the other end of the
room, and there I saw a table with tea and coffee. I
took a cup of coffee, and then the servant asked my
ndiVCi^y yelled it up the stairs to another, and he announced
it at the drawing-room door just as I entered.

" Mrs. Powell and the professor were of course stand-
ing near, and Mrs. Admiral Smyth just behind. To
my delight, I met four English persons whom I knew,
and also Prof. Henry B. Rogers, who is a great society
man.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 29

" People kept coming until the room was quite full.
I was very glad to be introduced to Professor Stokes,
who is called the best mathematician in England, and is
a friend of Adams. He is very handsome — almost all
Englishmen are handsome, because they look healthy;
but Professor Stokes has fine black eyes and dark hair
and good features. He looks very young and innocent.
Stokes is connected with Cambridge, but lives in
London, just as Professor Powell is connected with
Oxford, but also lives in London. Several gentlemen
spoke to me without a special introduction — one told
me his name was Dr. Townby [Qy., Toynbie], and he
was a great admirer of Emerson — the first case of the
sort I have met.

"Dr. Townby is a young man not over- thirty, full of
enthusiasm and progress, like an American. He really
seemed to me all alive, and is either a genius or crazy —
the shade between is so delicate that I can't always tell
to which a person belongs ! I asked him if Babbage
was in the room, and he said, * Not yet,' so I hoped he
would come.

" He told me that a fine-looking, white-headed, good-
featured old man was Roget, of the * Thesaurus ; ' and
another old man in the corner was Dr. Arnott, of the
* Elements of Physics.' I had supposed he was dead
long ago. Afterwards I was introduced to him. He
is an old man, but not much over sixty ; his hair is
white, but he is full of vigor, short and stout, like
almost all Englishmen and Englishwomen. I have met
only two women taller than myself, and most of them
are very much shorter. Dr. Arnott told me he was

I30 MARIA MITCHELL

only now finishing the ' Elements,' which he first pub-
lished in 1827. He intends now to publish the more
mathematical portions with the other volumes. He was
very sociable, and I told him he had twenty years ago a
great many readers in America. He said he supposed
he had more there than in England, and that he believed
he had made young men study science in many instances.

" I asked him if Babbage was in the room, and he too
said, * Not yet.' Dr. Arnott asked me if I wore as many
stockings when I was observing as the Herschels — he
said Sir William put on twelve pairs and Caroline four-
teen !

" I stayed until eleven o'clock, then I said * Good-
by,' and just as I stepped upon the threshold of the
drawing-room to go out, a broad old man stepped
upon it, and the servant announced * Mr. Babbage,' and
of course that glimpse was all I shall ever have !

" Edinboro', September 30. The people of Edinboro',
having a passion for Grecian architecture, and being
very proud of the Athenian character of their city,
seek to increase the resemblance by imitations of
ancient buildings.

** Grecian pillars are seen on Calton Hill in great
numbers, and the observatory would delight an old
Greek ; its four fronts are adorned by Grecian pillars,
and it is indeed beautiful as a structure ; but the Greeks
did not build their temples for astronomical observa-
tions ; they probably adapted their architecture to their
needs.

" This beautiful building was erected by an associa-
tion of gentlemen, who raised a good deal of money.

FIRST EUROPEAN' TOUR 13 1

but, of course, not enough. They built the Grecian
temple, but they could not supply it with priests.

" About a hundred years ago Colin Maclaurin had
laid the foundation of an observatory, and the curious
Gothic building, which still stands, is the first germ.
We laugh now at the narrow ideas of those days, which
seemed to consider an observatory a lookout only ; but
the first step in a work is a great step — the others are
easily taken. There was added to the building of Mac-
laurin a very small transit room, and then the present
edifice followed.

"When the builders of the observatory found that
they could not support it, they presented it to the British
government ; so that it is now a government child, but
it is not petted, like the first-born of Greenwich.

" There are three instruments ; an excellent transit in-
strument of six and a half inches' aperture, resting on its
y's of solid granite. The corrections of the errors of
the instrument by means of little screws are given up,
and the errors which are known to exist are corrected
in the computations.

" Professor Smyth finds that although the two pillars
upon which the instrument rests were cut from the
same quarry, they are unequally affected by changes of
temperature ; so that the variation of the azimuth error,
though slight, is irregular.

'* The collimation plate they correct with the microm-
eter, so that they consider some position-reading of
the micrometer-head the zero point, and correct that
for the error, which they determine by reflection in a
trough of mercury. With this instrument they observe

132 MARIA MITCHELL

on certain stars of the British Catalogue, whose places
are not very well determined, and with a mural circle of
smaller power they determine declinations.

" The observatory possesses an equatorial telescope,
but it is of mixed composition. The object glass was
given by Dr. Lee, the eye-pieces by some one else,
and the two are put together in a case, and used by
Professor Smyth for looking at the craters in the moon ;
of these he has made fine drawings, and has published
them in color prints.

*' The whole staff of the observatory consists of Pro-
fessor Smyth, Mr. Wallace, an old man, and Mr. Will-
iamson, a young man.

" The city of Edinboro' has no amateur astron-
omers, and there are two only, of note, in Scotland : Sir
William Bisbane and Sir William Keith Murray.

** From the observatory, the view of Edinboro' is
lovely. * Auld Reekie,' as the Scotch call it, always
looks her best through a mist, and a Scotch mist is not
a rare event — so we saw the city under its most be-
coming veil.

" October, 1857. I stopped in Glasgow a few hours,
and went to the observatory, which is also the private
residence of Professor Nichol. Miss Nichol received
me, and was a very pleasant, blue-eyed young lady.

"I found that the observatory boasts of two good in-
struments : a meridian circle, which must be good, from
its appearance, and a Newtonian telescope, differently
mounted from any I had seen ; cased in a composition
tube which is painted bright blue — rather a striking
object. The iron mounting seemed to me good. It

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 33

was of the German kind, but modified. It seemed to
me that it could be used for observations far from the
meridian. The iron part was hollow, so that the clock
was inside, as was the azimuth circle, and thus space
was saved.

** They have a wind and rain self-register, and a self-
registering barometer, marking on a cylinder turned by
a clock, the paper revolving once an hour.

" When I was at Dungeon Ghyll, a little ravine among
the English lakes, down which trickles an exceedingly
small stream of water, but which is, nevertheless, very
picturesque, — as I followed the old man who shows it
for a sixpence, he asked if we had come a long way.
*From America,' I replied. * We have many Americans
here,' said he ; * it is much easier to understand their
language than that of other foreigners ; they speak very
good English, better than the French or Germans.'

" I felt myself a little annoyed and a good deal
amused. I supposed that I spoke the language that
Addison wrote, and here was a Westmoreland guide,
speaking a dialect which I translated into English
before I could understand it, complimenting me upon
my ability to speak my own tongue.

" I learned afterwards, as I journeyed on, to expect no
appreciation of my country or its people. The English
are strangely deficient in curiosity. I can scarcely
imagine an Englishwoman a gossip.
' ** I found among all classes a knowledge of the extent
of America; by the better classes its geography was
understood, and its physical peculiarities. One astron-
omer had bound the scientific papers from America in

134 MARIA MITCHELL

green morocco, as typical of a country covered by
forests. Among the most intelligent men whom I met
I found an appreciation of the different characters of
the States. Everywhere Massachusetts was honored ;
everywhere I met the horror of the honest Englishman
at the slave system ; but anything like a discriminating
knowledge of our public men I couid not meet. Web-
ster had been heard of everywhere. They assured me
that our really great men were known, our really great
deeds appreciated ; but this is not true. They make
mistakes in their measure of our men ; second-rate men
who have travelled are of course known to the men
whom they have met ; these travellers have not perhaps
thought it necessary to mention that they represent
a secondary class of people, and they are considered
our * first men.' The English forget that all Americans
travel.

** I was vexed when I saw some of our most miserable
novels, bound in showy yellow and red, exposed for
sale. A friend told me that they had copied from the
cheap publications of America. It may be so, but they
have outdone us in the cheapness of the material and
the showy covers. I never saw yellow and red together
on any American book.

** The English are far beyond us in their highest
scholarship, but why should they be ignorant of our
scholars? The Englishman is proud, and not without
reason ; but he may well be proud of the American off-
shoot. It is not strange that England produces fine
scholars, when we consider that her colleges confer fel-
lowships on the best undergraduates.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 135

** England differs from America in the fact that it has
a past. Well may the great men of the present be
proud of those who have gone before them; it is
scarcely to be hoped that the like can come after them ;
and yet I suppose we must admit that even now the
strong minds are born across the water.

** At the same tiipe England has a class to which we
have happily no parallel in our country — a class to
which even English gentlemen liken the Sepoys, and
who would, they admit, under like circumstances be
guilty of like enormities. But the true Englishman
shuts his eyes for a great part of the time to the steps
in the social scale down which his race descends, and
looks only at the upper walks. He has therefore a
glance of patronizing kindness for the people of the
United States, and regards us of New England as we
regard our rich brethren of the West.

" I wondered what was to become of the English
people ! Their island is already crowded with people,
the large towns are numerous and are very large.
Suppose for an instant that her commerce is cut off,
will they starve? It is an illustration of moral power
that, little island as that of Great Britain is, its power is
the great power of the world.

" Crowded as the people are, they are healthy. I
never saw, I thought, so many ruddy faces as met me
at once in Liverpool. Dirty children in the street have
red cheeks and good teeth. Nowhere did I see little
children whose minds had outgrown their bodies.
They do not live in the school-room, but in the streets.
One continually meets little children carrying smaller

136 MARIA MITCHELL

ones in their arms ; little girls hand in hand walk the
streets of London all day. There are no free schools,
and they have nothing to do. Beggars are ever)nvhere,
and as importunate as in Italy. For a well-behaved
common people I should go to Paris ; for clean work-
ing-women I should look in Paris.

" I saw a little boy in England tormenting a smaller
one. He spat upon his cap, and then declared that
the little one did it. The little one sobbed and said he
didn't. I gave the little one a penny ; he evidently did
not know the value of the coin, and appealed to the
bigger boy. * Is it a penny? ' he asked, with a look of
amazement. *Yes,' said the bigger. Off ran the
smaller one triumphant, and the bigger began to cry,
which I permitted him to do."

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR i^J

CHAPTER VII

1857-1858

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR CONTINUED — LEVERRIER AND THE PARIS

OBSERVATORY ROME — HARRIET HOSMER OBSERVATORY OF

THE CX)LLEGIO ROMANO — SECCHI

At this time, the feeling between astronomers of
Great Britain and those of the United States was not
very cordial. It was the time when Adams and
Leverrier were contending to which of them belonged
the honor of the discovery of the planet Neptune, and
each side had its strong partisans.

Among Miss Mitchell's papers we find the following
with reference to this subject :

". . . Adams, a graduate of Cambridge, made the
calculations which showed how an unseen body must
exist whose influences were felt by Uranus. It was a
problem of great difficulty, for he had some half-dozen
quantities touching Uranus which were not accurately
known, and as many wholly unknown concerning the
unseen planet. We think it a difficult question which
involves three or four unknown quantities with too few
circumstances, but this problem involved twelve or
thirteen, so that x, y, z reached pretty high up into the
alphabet. But Adams, having worked the problem,
carried his work to Airy, the Astronomer Royal of
England, and awaited his comments. A little later

138 MARIA MITCHELL

Leverrier, the French astronomer, completed the same
problem, and waiting for no authority beyond his own,
flung his discovery out to the world with the self-con-
fidence of a Frenchman. . . .

" . . . When the news of the discovery of Neptune
reached this country, I happened to be visiting at the
observatory in Cambridge, Mass. Professor Bond (the
elder) had looked for the planet the night before I
arrived at his house, and he looked again the evening
that I came.

" His observatory was then a small, round building,
and in it was a small telescope ; he had drawn a map of
a group of stars, one of which he supposed was not a
star, but the planet. He set the telescope to this group,
and asking his son to count the seconds, he allowed the
stars to pass by the motion of the earth across the
field. If they kept the relative distance of the night
before, they were all stars ; if any one had approached
or receded from the others, it was a planet ; and when
the father looked at his son's record he said, * One of
those has moved, and it is the one which I thought last
night was the planet.* He looked again at the group,
and the son said, ' Father, do give me a look at the new
planet — you are the only man in America that can do
it ! * And then we both looked ; it looked precisely
like a small star, and George and I both asked, ' What
made you think last night that it was the new planet ? *
Mr. Bond could only say, * I don't know, it looked dif-
ferent from the others.'

" It is always so — you cannot get a man of genius
to explain steps, he leaps.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 139

** After the discovery of this planet, Professor Peirce,
in our own country, declared that it was not the planet
of the theory, and therefore its discovery was a happy
accident. But it seemed to me that it was the planet of
the theory, just as much if it varied a good deal fro mi
its prescribed place as if it varied a- little. So you might
have said that Uranus was not the Uranus of the theory..

" Sir John Herschel said, * Its movements have beea
felt trembling along the far-reaching line of our analy-
sis, with a certainty hardly inferior to ocular demonstrap
tion.' I consider it was superior to ocular dempnstration,K
as the action of the mind is above that qf the senses.
Adams, in his study at Cambridge, England; and Lever-
rier in his closet at Paris, poring over their loga-
rithms, knew better the locus of that outside planet
than all the practical astronomers of the world put to-
gether. . . .

** Of course in Paris I went to the Imperial Observa-
tory, to visit Leverrier. I carried letters from Professor
Airy, who also sent a letter in advance by post. Lever-
rier called at my hotel, and left cards ; then came a note,
and I went to tea.

" Leverrier had succeeded Arago. Arago had been a
member of the Provisional Government, and had died.
Leverrier took exactly opposite ground, politically, to
that of Arago ; he stood high with the emperor.

" He took me all over the observatory. He had a
large room for a ballroom, because in the ballroom sci-
ence and politics were discussed ; for where a press is
not free, salons must give the tone to public opinion.

"Both Leverrier and Madame Leverrier said hard

I40 MARIA MITCHELL

things about the English, and the English said hard
things about Leverrier.

" The Astronomical Observatory of Paris was founded
on the establishment of the Academy of Sciences, in
the reign of Louis XIV. The building was begun in
1667 and finished in 1672; like other observatories of
that time, it was quite unfit for use.

" John Dominie Cassini came to it before it was
finished, saw its defects, and made alterations ; but the
whole building was afterwards abandoned. M. Lever-
rier showed me the transit instrument and the mural
circle. He has, like Mr. Airy, made the transit instru-
ment incapable of mechanical change for its corrections
of error, so that it depends for accuracy upon its faults
being known and corrected in the computations.

" All the early observatories of Europe seem to have
been built as temples to Urania, and not as working-
chambers of science. The Royal Observatory at
Greenwich, the Imperial Observatory of Paris, and the
beautiful structure on Calton Hill, Edinboro*, were at
first wholly useless as observatories. That of Green-
wich had no steadiness, while every pillar in the astro-
nomical temple of Edinboro', though it may tell of the
enlightenment of Greece, hides the light of the stars
from the Scottish observer. Well might Struve say that
' An observatory should be simply a box to hold instru-
ments.'

*' The Leverriers speak English about as well as I do
French, and we had a very awkward time of it. M. Lever-
rier talked with me a little, and then talked wholly to one
of the gentlemen present. Madame was very chatty.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR I41

** Leverrier is very fine- looking; he is fair-haired
full-faced, altogether very healthy-looking. His wife
is really handsome, the children beautiful. I was glad
that I could understand when Leverrier said to the
children, ' If you make any more noise you go to bed.'

" While I was there, a woman as old as I rushed in,
in bonnet and shawl, and flew around the room, kissed
madame, jumped the children about, and shook hands
with . monsieur ; and there was a great amount of
screaming and laughing, and all talked at once. As I
could not understand a word, it seemed to me like a
theatre.

" I asked monsieur when I could see the observatory,
and he answered, * Whenever it suits your conven-
ience.'

"December 15. I went to Leverrier's again last
evening by special invitation. Four gentlemen and
three ladies received me, all standing and bowing with-
out speaking. Monsieur was, however, more sociable
than before, and shrieked out to me in French as
though I were deaf.

" The ladies were in blue dresses ; a good deal of
crinoline, deep flounces, high necks, very short, flowing
sleeves, and short undersleeves ; the dresses were bro-
cade and the flounces much trimmed, madame's with
white plush.

" The room was cold, of course, having no carpet,
and a wood fire in a very small fireplace.

" The gentlemen continued standing or promenading,
and taking snuff*.

" Except Leverrier, no one of them spoke to me. The

142 MARIA MITCHELL

ladies all did, and all spoke French. The two children
were present again — the little girl five years old played
on the piano, and the boy of nine played and sang like
a public performed He promenaded about the room
with his hands in his pockets, like a man. I think his

manners were about equal to 's, as occasionally he

yelled and was told to be quiet.

" About ten o'clock M. Leverrier asked me to go into
the observatory, which connects with the dwelling.
They are building immense additional rooms, and are
having a great telescope, twenty-seven feet in focal
length, constructed.

" With Leverrier's bad English and my bad French
we talked but little, but he showed me the transit
instrument, the mural circle, the computing-room, and
the private office. He put on his cloak and cap, and
said, * Voila le directeur ! '

"One room, he told me, had been Arago's, and
Arago had his bed on one side. M. Leverrier said, * I
do not wish to have it for my room.' He is said to be
much opposed to Arago, and to be merciless towards
his family.

" He showed me another room, intended for a recep-
tion-room, and explained to me that in France one had
to make science come into social life, for the govern-
ment must be reached in order to get money.

" There were huge globes in one room that belonged
to Cassini. If what he showed me is not surpassed in
the other rooms, I don't think much of their instruments.

" M. Leverrier said he had asked M. Chacornac
to meet me, but he was not there. I felt that we got

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 43

on a little better, but not much, and it was evident that
he did not expect me to understand an observatory.
We did not ascend to the domes.

" Leverrier has telegraphic communication with all
Europe except Great Britain.

" It was quite singular that they made such different
remarks to me. Leverrier said that they had to make
science popular.

" Airy said, * In England there is no astronomical
public, and we do not need to make science popular.*

"Jan. 24, 1858. lam in Rome! I have been here
four days, and already I feel that I would rather have
that four days in Rome than all the other days of my
travels! I have been uncomfortable, cold, tired, and
subjected to all the evils of travelling ; but for all that,
I would not have missed the sort of realization that I
have of the existence of the past of great glory, if I
must have a thousand times the discomfort. I went
alone yesterday to St. Peter's and the Vatican, and to-
day, taking Murray, I went alone to the Roman Forum,
and stood beside the ruined porticos and the broken col-
umns of the Temple. Then I pushed on to the Coli-
seum, and walked around its whole circumference. I
could scarcely^ believe that I really stood among the
ruins, and was not dreaming 1 I really think I had more
enjoyment for going alone and finding out for myself.
Afterwards the Hawthornes called, and I took Mrs. H.
to the same spot. . . .

" I really feel the impressiveness of Rome. All
Europe has been serious to me; Rome is even sad
in its seriousness. You cannot help feeling, in the

144 MARIA MITCHELL

Coliseum, some little of the influence of the scenes that
have been enacted there, even if you know little about
them; you must remember that the vast numbers of
people who have been within its walls for ages have
not been common minds, whether they were Christian
martyrs or travelling artists. . . .

" I think if I had never heard before of the reputa-
tion of the pictures and statues of the Vatican, I should
have perceived their superiority. There is more idea
of action conveyed by the statuary than I ever received
before — they do not seem to be dead.

"January 25. I have finer rooms than I had in
Paris, but the letting of apartments is better managed
in Paris. There you always find a concierge, who tells
you all you want to know, and who speaks several Ian-
guages. In Rome you enter a narrow, dark passage,
and look in vain for a door. Then you go up a flight
of stairs, and see a door with a string; you pull the
string, and a woman puts her mouth to a square hole,
covered with tin punctured with holes, and asks what
you want. You tell her, and she tells you to go up
higher ; you repeat the process, and at last reach the
rooms. The higher up the better, because you get
some sun, and one learns the value of sunlight. I saw
no sun in Paris in my room, and here I have it half of
the day, and it seems very pleasant.

" All the customs of the people differ from those of
Paris. . . .

**A little of Italian art enters into the ornaments of
rooms and furniture, but anything like mechanical
skill seems to be unheard of; and I dare say the pretty

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 145

stamp used on the butter I have, which represents some
antique picture, was cut by some northern hand. I
could make a better cart than those that I see on the
streets, and I could almost make as good horses as those
that draw them ! . . .

" It is Holy Week. I have spent seven hours at a
time at St. Peter's, in terrible crowds, for ten days, and
now I go no more. The ladies are seated, but as the
ceremonies are in different parts of the immense build-
ing, they rush wildly from one to the other ; with their
black veils they look like furies let loose ! I stayed five
hours to-day to see the Pope wash feet, which was very
silly ; for I saw mother wash them much more effectually
twenty years ago !

"The crowd is better worth seeing than the ceremony,
if one could only see it without being in it. I shall not
try to hear the * Miserere ' — I have given up the study
of music ! Since I failed to appreciate Mario, I sha'n't
try any more I

" I go to the Storys* on Sunday evening to look at
St. Peter's lighting up.

"March 21. I have been to vespers at St. Peter's.
They begin an hour before sunset. When my work is
done for the day, I walk to St. Peter's. This is Sunday,
and the floor was full of kneeling worshippers, but that
makes no difference. I walk about among them.

** I was there an hour to-day before I saw a person
that I knew ; then I met the Nicholses and went with
them into a side chapel to hear vespers. Then I saw
next the Waterstons, then Miss Lander ; but I was un-
usually short of friends, I generally meet so many more.

146 MARIA MITCHELL

" There were kneeling women to-day with babies in
their arms. The babies of the lower classes have their
legs so wrapped up that they cannot move them ; they
look like small pillows even when they are six months
old. I think it must dwarf them. We Americans are
a tall people. I am a very tall woman here. I think
that P.'s height would cause a sensation in the streets.
My servant admires my height very much.

** March 22. I called on Miss Bremer to-day, hav-
ing heard that she desired to see me. She is a * little
woman in black/ but not so plain ; her face is a little
red, but her complexion is fair and the expression very
pleasing. She chatted away a good deal; asked me
about astronomy, and how I came to study it. I told
her that my father put me to it, and she said she
was just writing a story on the affection of father and
daughter. She told me I had good eyes. It is a long
time now since any one has told me that! . . .

** Miss Bremer and Mrs. W. met in my room and
remained an hour. Miss Bremer is quiet and unpre-
tending. Mrs. W. is flashy and brilliant, and, as I
usually say when I don't understand a person, a little
insane ; she had the floor all the time after she came in.
She gave a sketch of her life from her birth up, men-
tioning incidentally that she had been a belle, sur-
rounded with beaux, the pride of her parents, with a
reputation for intellect, etc.

" I had been urging Miss Bremer into an interest-
ing talk before Mrs. W. appeared, and I felt what
a pity it was that she hadn't the same propensity to
talk that the latter had. She talked very pleasantly,

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 147

however, and I thought what a pity it was that I shall
not see her again; for I leave Rome in three days
for Florence.

** I was in Rome for a winter, an idler by necessity
for six weeks. It is the very place of all the world for
an idler.

'* On the pleasant days there are the ruins to visit,
the Campagna to stroll over, the villas and their grounds
to gather flowers in, the Forum to muse in, the Pincian
Hill or the Capitoline for a gossiping walk with some
friend.

" On rainy days it is all art. There are the cathedrals,
the galleries, and the studios of the thousand artists ;
for every winter there are a thousand artists in Rome.

" A rainy day found me in the studio of Paul Akers.
As I was looking at some of his models, the studio door
opened and a pretty little girl, wearing a jaunty hat and a
short jacket, into the pockets of which her hands were
thrust, rushed into the room, seemingly unconscious of
the presence of a stranger, began a rattling, all-alive talk
with Mr. Akers, of which I caught enough to know that
a ride over the Campagna was planned, as I heard Mr.
Akers say, ' Oh, I won't ride with you — Fm afraid to I '
after which he turned to me and introduced Harriet
Hosmer.

" I was just from old conservative England, and I had
been among its most conservative people. I had caught
something of its old musty-parchment ideas, and the
cricket-like manners of Harriet Hosmer rather troubled
me. It took some weeks for me to get over the impres-
sion of her madcap ways ; they seemed childish.

148 MARIA MITCHELL

** I went to her studio and saw ' Puck/ a statue all
fun and frolic, and I imagined all was fun to the core of
her heart.

"As a general rule, people disappoint you as you
know them. To know them better and better is to know
more and more weaknesses. Harriet Hosmer parades
her weaknesses with the conscious power of one who
knows her strength, and who knows you will find her
out if you are worthy of her acquaintance. She makes
poor jokes — she's a little rude — a good deal eccentric ;
but she is always true.

" In the town where she used to live in Massachusetts
they will tell you a thousand anecdotes of her vagaries —
but they are proud of her.

" She does not start on a false scent ; she knows the
royal character of the game before she hunts.

" A lady who is a great rider said to me a few days
since : ' Of course I do not ride like Harriet Hosmer,
but, if you will notice, there is method in Harriet
Hosmer's madness. She does not mount a horse
until she has examined him carefully.'

" At the time when I saw her, she was thinking of her
statue of Zenobia. She was studying the history of
Palmyra, reading up on the manners and customs of its
people, and examining Eastern relics and costumes.

" If she heard that in the sacristy of a certain cathe-
dral, hundreds of miles away, were lying robes of
Eastern queens, she mounted her horse and rode to the
spot, for the sake of learning the lesson they could
teach.

" Day after day alone in her studio, she studied the

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 149

subject. Think what knowledge of the country, of
the history of the people, must be gathered, must be
moulded, to bring into the face and bearing of its queen
the expression of the race! Think what familiar ac-
quaintance with the human form, to represent a lifelike
figure at all !

'* For years after I came home I read the newspapers
to see if I could find any notice of the statue of
Zenobia ; and I did at length see this announcement :
* The statue of Zenobia, by Miss Hosmer, is on exhibi-
tion at Childs & Jenks'.'

" It was after five years. All through those five years,
Miss Hosmer had kept her projects steadily turned in
this direction.

** Whatever may be the criticism of art upon her work,
no one can deny that she is above the average artist.

" But she is herself, as a woman, very much above
herself in art. If there came to any struggling artist in
Rome the need of a friend, — and of the thousand
artists in Rome very few are successful, — Harriet
Hosmer was that friend.

** I knew her to stretch out a helping hand to an
unfortunate artist, a poor, uneducated, unattractive
American, against whom the other Americans in Rome
shut their houses and their hearts. When the other
Americans turned from the unsuccessful artist, Harriet
Hosmer reached forth the helping hand.

"When Harriet Hosmer knew herself to be a
sculptor, she knew also that in all America was no
school for her. She must leave home, she must live
where art could live. She might model her busts in

150 MARIA MITCHELL

the clay of her own soil, but who should follow out in
marble the delicate thought which the clay expressed ?
The workmen of Massachusetts tended the looms, built
the railroads, and read the newspapers. The hard-handed
men of Italy worked in marble from the designs put
before them ; one copied the leaves which the sculptor
threw into the wreaths around the brows of his heroes ;
another turned with his tool the folds of the drapery ;
another wrought up the delicate tissues of the flesh ;
none of them dreamed of ideas : they were copyists, —
the very hand-work that her head needed.

** And to Italy she went. For her school she sought
the studio of Gibson — the greatest sculptor of the time.

** She resolved * To scorn delights and live laborious
days ; ' and there she has lived and worked for years.

"She fashions the clay to her ideal — every little
touch of her fingers in the clay is a thought ; she thinks
in clay.

"The model finished and cast in the dull, hard, inex-
pressive plaster, she stands by the workmen while they
put it into the marble. She must watch them, for a
touch of the tool in the wrong place might alter the
whole expression of the face, as a wrong accent in
the reader will spoil a line of poetry.

" COLLEGIO Romano ; Secchi. There was another
observatory which had a reputation and was known
in America. It was the observatory of the Collegio
Romano, and was in the monastery behind the Church
of St. Ignasio. Its director was the Father Secchi who
had visited the United States, and was well known to
the scientists of this country.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 151

" I said to myself, * This is the land of Galileo, and
this is the city in which he was tried. I knew of no
sadder picture in the history of science than that of the
old man, Galileo, worn by a long life of scientific re-
search, weak and feeble, trembling before that tribunal
whose frown was torture, and declaring that to be false
which he knew to be true. And I know of no picture
in the history of religion more weakly pitiable than
that of the Holy Church trembling before Galileo, and
denouncing him because he found in the Book of Nature
truths not stated in their own Book of God — forgetting
that the Book of Nature is also a Book of God.

** It seems to be difficult for any one to take in the
idea that two truths cannot conflict.

"Galileo was the first to see the four moons of
Jupiter ; and when he announced the fact that four such
moons existed, of course he was met by various objec-
tions from established authority. One writer declared
that as astrologers had got along very well without
these planets, there could be no reason for their starting
into existence.

** But his greatest heresy was this : He was tried, con-
demned, and punished for declaring that the sun was
the centre of the system, and that the earth moved
around it ; also, that the earth turned on its axis.

"For teaching this, Galileo was called before the
assembled cardinals of Rome, and, clad in black cloth,
was compelled to kneel, and to promise never again to
teach that the earth moved. It is said that when he
arose he whispered, * It does move ! *

" He was tried at the Hall of Sopre Minerva. In

152 MARIA MITCHELL

fewer than two hundred years from that time the
Church of St. Ignasio was built, and the monastery on
whose walls the instruments of the modern observatory
stand.

" It IS a very singular fact, but one which seems to
show that even in science 'the blood of the martyrs
is the seed of the church/ that the spot where Galileo
was tried is very near the site of the present observa-
tory, to which the pope was very liberal.

" From the Hall of Sopre Minerva you make but two
turns through short streets to the Fontenelle de Bor-
ghese, in the rear of which stands the present observ-
atory.

" Indeed, if a cardinal should, at the Hall of Sopre
Minerva, call out to Secchi, * Watchman, what of the
night?' Secchi could hear the question; and no bolder
views emanate from any observatory than those which
Secchi sends out.

" I sent a card to Secchi, and awaited a call, well
satisfied to have a little more time for listless strolling
among ruins and into the studios. And so we spent
many an hour: picking up land shells from the top
of the Coliseum, gathering violets in the upper
chambers of the Palace of the Caesars, — for the over-
grown walls made climbing very easy, — or, resting
upon some broken statue on the Forum, we admired the
arches of the Temple of Peace, thrown upon the rich
blue of the sunny skies.

** Returning one day from a! drive, I met two priests
descending one of the upper flights of stairs in the house
where I lived. As my rooms had been blessed once.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 53

and holy water sprinkled upon them, I thought perhaps
another process of that kind had just been gone through,
and was about to pass them, when one of them, accost-
ing me, asked if I were the Signorina Mitchell, — chang-
ing his Italian to good English as he saw that I was,
and introducing himself as Father Secchi. He told me
that the younger man was a young religieux, and the
two turned and went back with me.

**I recalled, as I saw Father Secchi, an anecdote I had
heard, no way to his credit, — except for ingenious
trickery. It was said that coming to America he
brought with him the object-glass of a telescope, at a
time when scientific apparatus paid a high duty. Being
asked by some official what the article was, he replied,
* My looking-glass,' and in that way passed it off as per-
sonal wardrobe, so escaped the duty. (It may have
been De Vico.)

" Father Secchi had brought with him, to show me,
negatives of the planet Saturn, — the rings showing
beautifully, although the image was not more than half
an inch in size.

" I was ignorant enough of the ways of papal institu-
tions, and, indeed, of all Italy, to ask if I might visit the
Roman Observatory. I remembered that the days of
Galileo were days of two centuries since. I did not
know that my heretic feet must not enter the sanctuary,
— that my woman's robe must not brush the seats of
learning.

•* The Father's refusal was seen in his face at once,
and I felt that I had done something highly improper.
The Father said that he would have been most happy to

154 MARIA MITCHELL

have me visit him, but he had not the power — it was
a religious institution — he had already applied to his
superior, who jwras not willing to grant permission —
the power lay with the Holy Father or one of his car-
dinals. I was told that Mrs. Somerville, the most
learned woman in all Europe, had been denied admis-
sion ; that the daughter of Sir John Herschel, in spite
of English rank, and the higher stamp of Nature's nobil-
ity, was at that time in Rome, and could not enter an
observatory which was at the same time a monastery.

" If I had before been mildly desirous of visiting the
observatory, I was now intensely anxious to do so.
Father Secchi suggested that I should see Cardinal
Antonelli in person, with a written application in my
hand. This was not to be thought of — to ask an inter-
view with the wily cardinal !

FROM A LETTER TO HER FATHER.

. . . I am working to get admitted to see the observatory, but
it cannot be done without special permission from the pope, and I
don't like to be ** presented." If I can get permission without the
humbug of putting on a black veil and receiving a blessing from
Pius, I shall ; but I shrink from the formality of presentation. I
know thou'd say ** Be presented."

" Our minister at that time had the reputation of
being very careless of the needs and wishes of his coun-
trymen, and I was not surprised to find a long delay.

" In the course of my waiting, I had told my story to
a young Italian gentleman, the nephew of a monseig-
neur ; a monseigneur being next in rank to a cardinal.
He assured me that permission would never be obtained
by our minister.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 155

"After a fortnight's waiting I received a permit,
written on parchment, and signed by Cardinal Antonelli.

"When the young Italian next called, I held the
parchment up in triumph, and boasted that Minister
— had at length moved in the matter. The young
man coolly replied, * Yes, I spoke to my uncle last
evening, and asked him to urge the matter with Car-
dinal Antonelli; but for that it would never have
come ! ' There had been ' red tape,' and I had mat
seen it.

** At the same time that the formal missive was, sent
to me, a similar one was sent to Father Secchi,, author-
izing him to receive me. The Father calJi^dl ^ onoe to>
make the arrangements for my visit. I miadlC; tilie most
natural mistake ! I supposed that the doors which
opened to one woman, opened to all, and I asked to
take with me my Italian servant, a quick-witted and
bright-eyed woman, who had escorted me to and
from social parties in the evening, and who had learned
in these walks the names of the stars, receiving them
from me in English, and giving back to me the sweet
Italian words; and who had come to think herself
quite an astronomer. Father Secchi refused at once.
He said I was to meet him at the Church of St. Ig-
nasio at one and a half hours before Ave Maria, and
he would conduct me through the church into the
observatory. My servant might come into the church
with me. The Ave Maria bell rings half an hour after
sunset.

" At the appointed time, the next fine day, — and all
days seem to be fine, — we set out on our mission.

156 MARIA MITCHELL

" When we entered the church we saw, far in the dis-
tance, Father Secchi, standing just behind a pillar.
He slipped out a little way, as much as to say, 'I
await you,* but did not come forward to meet us ; so
the woman and I passed along through the rows of
kneeling worshippers, by the strolling students, and
past the lounging tourists — who, guide-book in hand,
are seen in every foreign church — until we came to the
standpoint from which the Father had been watch-
ing us. '

"Then the Italian woman put up a petition, not one
word of which I could understand, but the gestures
and the pointing showed that she begged to go on and
enter the monastery and see the observatory. Father
Secchi said, * No, the Holy Father gave permission to
one only,' and alone I entered the monastery walls.

** Through long halls, up winding staircases, occasion-
ally stopped by some priest who touched his broad
hat and asked * Parlate Italiano?* occasionally passed
by students, often stopped by pictures on the walls, —
once to be introduced to a professor; then through the
library of the monastery, full of manuscripts on which
monks had worked away their lives; then through the
astronomical library, where young astronomers were
working away theirs, we reached at length the dome
and the telescope.

" One observatory is so much like another that it does
not seem worth while to describe Father Secchi's.
This observatory has a telescope about the size of that
at Washington (about twelve inches). Secchi had
no staff, and no prescribed duties. The base of the

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 57

observatory was the solid foundation of the old Ro-
man building. The church was built in 1650, and the
monastery in part at that time, certainly the dome of
the room in which was the meridian instrument.

" The staircase is cut out of the old Roman walls,
which no roll of carriage, except that of the earthquake
chariot, can shake.

" Having no prescribed duties, Secchi could follow his
fancies — he could pick up comets as he picked up bits
of Mosaic upon the Roman forum. He learns what
himself and his instruments can do, and he keeps to
that narrow path.

" He was at that time much interested in celestial
photography.

"Italy must be the very paradise of astronomers;
certainly I never saw objects so well before ; the purity
of the air must be very superior to ours. We looked
at Venus with a power of 150, but it was not good.
Jupiter was beautiful, and in broad daylight the belts
were plainly seen. With low powers the moon was
charming, but the air would not bear high ones.

" Father Secchi said he had used a power of 2,cx)0,
but that 600 was more common. I have rarely used
400. Saturn was exquisite ; the rings were separated
all around; the dusky ring could be seen, and, of
course, the shadow of the ball upon the ring.

"The spectroscopic method of observing starlight
was used by Secchi as early as by any astronomer.
By this method the starlight is analyzed, and the sun-
light is analyzed, and the two compared. If it does
not disclose absolutely what are the peculiarities of

158 MARIA MITCHELL

starlight and sunlight, relatively, it traces the relation-
ship.

" In order to be successful in this kind of observation,
the telescope must keep very accurately the motion of
the earth in its axis ; and so the papal government fur-
nishes nice machinery to keep up with this motion, —
the same motion for declaring whose existence Galileo
suffered! The two hundred years had done their
work.

**I should have been glad to stay until dark to look
at nebulae, but the Father kindly informed me that
my permission did not extend beyond the daylight,
which was fast leaving us, and conducting me to the
door he informed me that I must mak^ my way home
alone, adding, * But we live in a civilized country.'

** I did not express to him the doubt that rose to my
thoughts ! The Ave Maria bell rings half an hour
after sunset, and before that time I must be out of
the observatory and at my own house."

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR I §9

CHAPTER VIII

1858-1865

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR CONCLUDED MRS. SOMERVILLE HUM-
BOLDT MRS. MITCHELL'S DEATH REMOVAL TO LYNN,

MASS. PRESENT OF AN EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE EXTRACTS

FROM LETTERS

" I HAD no hope, when I went to Europe, of knowing
Mrs. Somerville. American men of science did not
know her, and there had been unpleasant passages be-
tween the savants of Europe and those of the United
States which made my friends a little reluctant about
giving me letters.

" Professor Henry offered to send me letters, and
said that among them should be one to Mrs. Somer-
ville; but when his package came, no such letter
appeared, and I did not like to press the matter, —
indeed, after I had been in England I was not surprised
at any amount of reluctance. They rarely asked to
know my friends, and yet, if they were made known
to them, they did their utmost.

" So I went to Europe with no letter to Mrs. Somer-
ville, and no letter to the Herschels.

" I was very soon domesticated with the Airys, and
really felt my importance when I came to sleep in one
of the round rooms of the Royal Observatory. I dared
give no hint to the Airys that I wanted to know the

l6o MARIA MITCHELL

Herschels, although they were intimate friends. * What
was I that I should love them, save for feeling of the
pain?' But one fine day a letter came to Mrs. Airy
from Lady Herschel, and she asked, * Would not Miss
Mitchell like to visit us?* Of cot^rse Miss Mitchell
jumped at the chance ! Mrs. Airy replied, and prob-
ably hinted that Miss Mitchell 'could be induced,'
etc.

** If the Airys were old friends of Mrs. Somerville, the
Herschels were older. The Airys were just and kind
to me ; the Herschels were lavish, and they offered me
a letter to Mrs. Somerville.

" So, provided with this open sesame to Mrs. Somer-
ville's heart, I called at her residence in Florence, in the
spring of 1858.

" I sent in the letter and a card, and waited in the
large Florentine parlor. In the open fireplace blazed
a wood fire very suggestive of American comfort —
very deceitful in the suggestion, for there is little of
home comfort in Italy.

"After some little delay I heard a footstep come
shuffling along the outer room, and an exceedingly tall
and very old man entered the room, in the singular
head-dress of a red bandanna turban, approached me,
and introduced himself as Dr. Somerville, the husband.

" He was very proud of his wife, and very desirous of
talking about her, a weakness quite pardonable in the
judgment of one who is desirous to know. He began
at once on the subject. Mrs. Somerville, he said, took
great interest in the Americans, for she claimed con-
nection with the family of George Washington.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR l6l

" Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne
Fairfax, who was one of the Scotch family. When
Lieutenant Fairfax was ordered to America, Washington
wrote to him as a family relative, and asked him to
make him a visit. Lieutenant Fairfax applied to his
commanding officer for permission to accept, and it wias
refused. They never met, and much to the regret of
the Fairfax family the letter of Washington- was lost.
The Fairfaxes of Virginia are of the same family, and
occasionally some member of the American branch
returns to see his Scotch cousins.

" While Dr. Somerville was eagerly talking of these
things, Mrs. Somerville came tripping into the room,
speaking at pnce with the vivacity of a young person.
She was seventy-seven years old, but appeared twenty
years younger. She was not handsome, but her face
was pleasing ; the forehead low and broad ; the eyes
blue ; the features so regular, that in the marble bust
by Chantrey, which I had seen, I had considered her
handsome.

" Neither bust nor picture, however, gives a correct
idea of her, except in the outline of the head and
shoulders.

"She spoke with a strong Scotch accent, and was
slightly affected with deafness, an infirmity so common
in England and Scotland.

" While Mrs. Somerville talked, the old gentleman,
seated by the fire, busied himself in toasting a slice of
bread on a fork, which he kept at a slow-toasting dis-
tance from the coals. An English lady was present,
learned in art, who, with a volubility worthy of an

1 62 MARIA MITCHELL

American, rushed iato every little opening of Mrs.
Somerville's more measured sentences with her remarks
upon recent discoveries in her specialty. Whenever
this occurred, the old man grew fidgety, moved the
slice of bread backwards and forwards as if the fire
were at fault, and when, at length, the English lady had
fairly conquered the ground, and was started on a long
sentence, he could bear the eclipse of his idol no longer,
but, coming to the sofa where we sat, he testily said,
* Mrs. Somerville would rather talk on science than on
art'

"Mrs. Somerville's conversation was marked by great
simplicity; it was rather of the familiar and chatty
order, with no tendency to the essay style. She
touched upon the recent discoveries in chemistry or
the discovery of gold in California, of the nebulae,
more and more of which she thought might be re-
solved, and yet that there might exist nebulous matters,
such as compose the tails of comets, of the satellites, of
the planets, the last of which she thought had other
uses than as subordinates. She spoke with disappro-
bation of Dr. Whewell's attempt to prove that our
planet was the only one inhabited by reasoning beings ;
she believed that a higher order of beings than our-
selves might people them.

" On subsequent visits there were many questions
from Mrs. Somerville in regard to the progress of
science in America. She regretted, she said, that she
knew so little of what was done in our country.

" From Lieutenant Maury, alone, she received scien-
tific papers. She spoke of the late Dr. (Nathaniel)

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 63

Bowditch with great interest, and said she had corre-
sponded with one of his sons. She asked after
Professor Peirce, whom she considered a great mathe-
matician, and of the Bonds, of Cambridge. She was
much interested in their photography of the stars, and
said it had never been done in Europe. At that time
photography was but just applied to the stars. I had
carried to the Royal Astronomical Society the first
successful photograph of a star. It was that of Mizar
and Alcor, in the Great Bear. (Since that time all these
things have improved.)

" The last time I saw Mrs. Somerville, she took me
into her garden to show me her rose-bushes, in which
she took great pride. Mrs. Somerville was not a
mathematician only, she spoke Italian fluently, and
was in early life a good musician.

** I could but admire Mrs. Somerville as a woman.
The ascent of the steep and rugged path of science had
not unfitted her for the drawing-room circle ; the hours
of devotion to close study have not been incompatible
with the duties of wife and mother ; the mind that has
turned to rigid demonstration has not thereby lost its
faith in those truths which figures will not prove. * I
have no doubt,' said she, in speaking of the heavenly
bodies, *that in another state of existence we shall
know more about these things.'

" Mrs. Somerville, at the age of seventy-seven, was
interested in every new improvement, hopeful, cheery,
and happy. Her society was sought by the most
cultivated people in the world. [She died at ninety-
two.]

1 64 MARIA MITCHELL

"Berlin, May 7, 1858. Humboldt had replied to my
letter of introduction by a note, saying that he should
be happy to see me at 2 P.M., May 7. Of course I
was punctual. Humboldt is one of several residents
in a very ordinary-looking .house on Oranienberge
strasse.

" All along up the flight of stairs to his room were
printed notices telling persons where to leave packages
and letters for Alexander Humboldt.

** The servant showed me at first into a sort of ante-
room, hung with deers' horns and carpeted with tigers'
skins, then into the study, and asked me to take a seat
on the sofa. The room was very warm ; comfort was
evidently carefully considered, for cushions were all
around ; the sofa was handsomely covered with worsted
embroidery. A long study-table was full of books and
papers.

" I had waited but a few moments when Humboldt
came in ; he was a smaller man than I had expected to
see. He was neater, more * trig,' than the pictures
represent him ; in looking at the pictures you feel that
his head is too large, — out of proportion to the body,
— but you do not perceive this when you see him.

" He bowed in a most courtly manner, and told me
he was much obliged to me for coming to see him, then
shook hands, and asked me to sit, and took a chair
near me.

" There was a clock in sight, and I stayed but half an
hour. He talked every minute, and on all kinds of
subjects : of Dr. Bache, who was then at the head
of the U. S. Coast Survey ; of Dr. Gould, who had

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 165

recently returned from long years in South America;
of the Washington Observatory and its director, Lieu-
tenant Maury; of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany;
of Sir George Airy, of the Greenwich Observatory;
of Professor Enke's comet reputation ; of Argelander,
who was there observing variable stars ; of Mrs. Somer-
ville and Goldschmidt, and of his brother.

** It was the period when the subject of admitting
Kansas as a slave State was discussed — he touched
upon that ; it was during the administration of President
Buchanan, and he talked about that.

" Having been nearly a year in Europe, I had not
kept up my reading of American newspapers, but Hum-
boldt could tell me the latest news, scientifically and
politically. To my ludicrous mortification, he told me
of the change of position of some scientific professor in
New York State, and when I showed that I didn't know
the location of the town, which was Clinton, he told me
if I would look at the map, which lay upon the table, I
should find the town somewhere between Albany and
Buffalo.

** Humboldt was always considered a good-tempered,
kindly-natured man, but his talk was a little fault-find-
ing.

" He said : * Lieutenant Maury has been useful, but
for the director of an observatory he has put forth
some strange statements in the ' Geography of the
Sea.'

" He asked me if Mrs. Somerville was now occupied
with pure mathematics.. He said : * There she is strong.
I never saw her but once. She must be over sixty

1 66 MARIA MITCHELL

years old/ In reality she was seventy-seven. He spoke
with admiration of Mrs. Somerville's * Physical Geog-
raphy/ — said it was excellent because so concise. * A
German woman would have used more words.'

** Humboldt asked me if they could apply photog-
raphy to the small stars — to the eighth or ninth
magnitude. I had asked the same question of Professor
Bond, of Cambridge, and he had replied, * Give me
$500,000, and we can do it ; but it is very expensive.'

** Humboldt spoke of the fifty-three small planets, and
gave his opinion that they could not be grouped to-
gether ; that there was no apparent connection.

" Having lost all his teeth, Humboldt's articulation was
indistinct — he talked very rapidly. His hair was thin
and very white, his eyes very blue, his nose too broad
and too flat ; yet he was a handsome man. He wore a
white necktie, a black dress-coat, buttoned up, but not
so much so that it hid a figured dark-blue and white
waistcoat. He was a little deaf. He told me that he
was eighty-nine years old, and that he and Bonpland,
alone, were living of those who in early life were on
expeditions together; that Bonpland was eighty-five,
and much the more vigorous of the two.

" He said that we had gone backwards, morally, in
America since he was there, — that then there were
strong men there : Jefferson, and Hamilton, and Madi-
son ; that the three months he spent in America were
spent almost wholly with Jefferson.

" In the course of conversation he told me that the
fifth volume of ' Cosmos ' was in preparation. He urged
me to go to see Argelander on my way to London ; he

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 167

followed me out, still urging me to do this, and at the
same time assured me that Kansas would go all right.

" It was singular that Humboldt should advise me to
use the sextant ; it was the first instrument that I ever
used, and it is a very difficult one. No young aspirant
in science ever left Humboldt's presence uncheered,
and no petty animosities come out in his record. You
never heard of Humboldt's complaining that any one
had stolen his thunder, — he knew that no one could lift
his bolts.

"When I came away, he thanked me again for the
visit, followed me into the anteroom, and made a low
bow."

In 1855 Mrs. Mitchell was taken suddenly ill, and
although partial recovery followed, her illness lasted for
six years, during which time Maria was her constant
nurse. For most of the six years her mother's condi-
tion was such that merely a general care was needed,
but it used to be said that Maria's eyes were always
upon her. When the opportunity to go to Europe came,
an older sister came with her family to take Maria's
place in the home; and when Miss Mitchell returned
she found her mother so nearly in the state in which she
had left her, that she felt justified in having taken the
journey.

Mrs. Mitchell died in 1861, and a few months after
her death Mr. Mitchell and his daughter removed to
Lynn, Mass. — Miss Mitchell having purchased a small
house in that city, in the rear of which she erected
the little observatory brought from Nantucket. She
was very much depressed by her mother's death, and

1 68 MARIA MITCHELL

absorbed herself as much as possible in her observations
and in her work for the Nautical Almanac.

Soon after her return from Europe she had been pre-
sented with an equatorial telescope, the gift of Ameri-
can women, through Miss Elizabeth Peabody. The
following letter refers to this instrument:

letter from admiral smyth,

St. John's Lodge,
NEAR Aylesbury

* \ 25-7-59.

My dear Miss Mitchell : . . . We are much pleased to hear
of your acquisition of an equatorial instrument under a revolving
roof, for it is a true scientific luxury as well as an efficient imple-
ment. The aperture of your object-glass is sufficient for doing
much useful work, but, if I may hazard an opinion to you, do not
attempt too much, for it is quality rather than quantity which is now
desirable. I would therefore leave the multiplication of objects to
the larger order of telescopes, and to those who are given to sweep
and ransack the heavens, of whom there is a goodly corps. Now,
for your purpose, I would recommend a batch of neat, but not over-
close, binary systems, selected so as to have always one or the other
on hand.

I, however, have been bestirring myself to put amateurs upon a
more convenient and, I think, a better mode of examining double
stars than by the wire micrometer, with its faults of illumination,
fiddling, jumps, and dirty lamps. This is by the beautifiil method
of rock-crystal prisms, not the Rochon method of double-image,
but by thin wedges cut to given angles. I have told Mr. Alvan
Clark my ** experiences." and I hope he will apply his excellent
mind to the scheme. I am insisting upon this point in some astro-
nomical twaddle which I am now printing, and of which I shall
soon have to request your acceptance of a copy.

There is a very important department which calls for a zealous
amateur or two, namely, the colors of double stars, for these have

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 169

usually been noted after the eye has been fatigued with observing
in illuminated fields. The volume I hope to forward — enhommage
— will contain all the pros and cons of this branch.

There is, for ultimate utility, nothing like forming a plan and
then steadily following it. Those who profess they will attend to
ever3rthing often fall short of the mark. The division of labor
leads to beneficial conclusions as well in astronomy as in mechanics
and arts.

Mrs. Smyth and my daughter unite with me in wishing you all
happiness and success ; and believe me

My dear Miss Mitchell,

Yours very faithfully,

W. H. Smyth.

In regard to the dolors of stars, Miss Mitchell had
already begun their study, as these extracts from her
diary show:

"Feb. 19, 1853. I am just learning to notice the dif-
ferent colors of the stars, and already begin to have a
new enjoyment. Betelgeuse is strikingly red, while Rigel
is yellow. There is something of the same pleasure in
noticing the hues that there is in looking at a collec-
tion of precious stones, or at a flower-garden in autumn.
Blue stars I do not yet see, and but little lilac except
through the telescope.

*• Feb. 12, 1855. ... I swept around for
comets about an hour, and then I amused myself with
noticing the varieties of color. I wonder that I have so
long been insensible to this charm in the skies, the
tints of the different stars are so delicate in their variety.
. . , What a pity that some of our manufacturers
shouldn't be able to steal the secret of dyestuffs from

I/O MARIA MITCHELL

the stars, and astonish the feminine taste by new
brilliancy in fashion." ^

[Nantucket], April [i860].

My Dear : Your father just gave me a great fright by * * tapping
at my window" (I believe Poe's was a door, wasn't it?) and
holding up your note. 1 was busy examining some star notices
just received from Russia or Germany, — I never knew where Dor-
pat is, — and just thinking that my work was as good as theirs. I
always noticed that when school-teachers took a holiday in order
to visit other institutions they came home and quietly said, ''No
school is better or as good as mine." And then I read your note,
and perceive your reading is as good as Mrs. Kemble's. Now,
being modesty I always felt afraid the reason I thought you such a
good reader was because I didn't know any better, but if all the
world is equally ignorant, it makes it all right. . . *

Pve been intensely busy. I have been looking for the little
inferior planet to cross the sun, which it hasn't done, and I got an
article ready for the paper and then hadn't the courage to publish
— not for fear of the readers, but for fear that I should change my
own ideas by the time 'twas in print.

I am hoping, however, to have something by the meeting of the
Scientific Association in August, — some paper, — not to get repu-
tation for myself, — my reputation is so much beyond me that as
policy I should keep quiet, — but in order that my telescope may
show that it is at work. I am embarrassed by the amount of work
it might do — as you do not know which of Mrs. Browning's poems
to read, there are so many beauties.

The little republic of San Marino presented Miss
Mitchell, in 1859, with a bronze medal of merit, to-
gether with the Ribbon and Letters Patent signed by the
two captains regent. This medal she prized as highly
as the gold one from Denmark.

^ See Chapter XI.

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 1 71

'^Nantucket, May 12, i8[6o]. . ". . I send you a
notice of an occultation ; the last sentence and the last
figures are mine. You and I can never occult, for have
we not always helped one another to shine? Do you
have Worcester's Dictionary? I read it continually.
Did you feast on * The Marble Faun ' ? I have a
charming letter from Una Hawthorne, herself a poet by
nature, all about * papa's book.' Ought not Mr. Haw-
thorne to be the happiest man alive? He isn't, though \
Do save all the anecdotes you possibly can, piquant or
not ; starved people are not over-nice.

Lynn, Jan. 5 [1864].

. . . I very rarely see the B s; they go to a different

church, and you know with that class of people * * not to be with us
is to be against us." Indeed, I know very little of Lynn people.
If I can get at Mr. J., when you come to see me Pll ask him to
tea. He has called several times, but he*s in such demand that he
must be engaged some weeks in advance ! Would you, if you
lived in Lynn, want to fall into such a mass of idolaters?

I was wretchedly busy up to December 31, but have got into
quiet seas again. I have had a great deal of company — not a
person that I did not want to see, but I can't make the days
more than twenty-four hours long, with all my economy of time.
This week Professor Crosby, of Salem, comes up with his graduat-
ing class and his corps of teachers for an evening.

They remained in Lynn until Miss Mitchell was
called to Vassar College, in 1865, as professor of as-
tronomy and director of the observatory.

172 MARIA MITCHELL

CHAPTER IX

1865-1885
LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE

In her life at Vassar College there was a great deal
for Miss Mitchell to get accustomed to ; if her duties had
been merely as director of the observatory, it would
have been simply a continuation of her previous work.
But she was expected, of course, to teach astronomy ;
she was by no means sure that she could succeed as a
.teacher, and with this new work on hand she could not
confine herself to original investigation — that which
.had been her great aim in life.

But she was so much interested in the movement
for the higher education of women, an interest which
deepened as her work went on, that she gave up, in a
great measure, her scientific life, and threw herself heart
and soul into this work.

For some years after she went to Vassar, she still
continued the work for the Nautical Almanac ; but after
a while she relinquished that, and confined herself
wholly to the work in the college.

'* 1866. Vassar College brought together a mass of
heterogeneous material, out of which it was expected
that a harmonious whole would evolve — pupils from all
parts of the country, of different habits, different train-
ing, different views ; teachers, mostly from New England,

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 173

differing also; professors, largely from Massachusetts,
yet differing much. And yet, after a year, we can say
that there has been no very noisy jarring of the dis-
cordant elements ; small jostling has been felt, but the
president has oiled the rough places, and we have slid
over them.

"... Miss is a bigot, but a very sincere

one. She is the most conservative person I ever met.
I think her a very good woman, a woman of great
energy. . . . She is very kind to me, but had we
lived in the colonial days of Massachusetts, and had she
been a power, she would have burned me at the stake
for heresy!

" Yesterday the rush began. Miss Lyman [the lady
principal] had set the twenty teachers all around in
different places, and I was put into the parlor to talk
to * anxious mothers.'

** Miss Lyman had a hoarse cold, but she received
about two hundred students, and had all their rooms
assigned to them.

" While she had one anxious mamma, I took two or
three, and kept them waiting until she could attend to
them. Several teachers were with me. I made a rush
at the visitors as they entered, and sometimes I was asked
if I were lady principal, and sometimes if I were the
matron. This morning Miss Lyman's voice was gone.
She must have seen five hundred people yesterday.

"Among others there was one Miss Mitchell, and, of
course, that anxious mother put that girl under my
special care, and she is very bright. Then there were
two who were sent with letters to me, and several

174 MARIA MITCHELL

Others whose mothers took to me because they were
frightened by Miss Lyman's style.

"One lady, who seemed to be a bright woman, got
me by the button and held me a long time — she
wanted this, that, and the other impracticable thing for
the girl, and told me how honest her daughter was ; then
with a flood of tears she said, ' But she is not a Christian.
I know I put her into good hands when I put her here/
(Then I was strongly tempted to avow my Unitarian-
ism.) Miss W., who was standing by, said, ' Miss
Lyman will be an excellent spiritual adviser,' and we
both looked very serious ; when the mother wiped her
weeping eyes and said, * And, Miss Mitchell, will you
ask Miss Lyman to insist that my daughter shall curl
her hair? She looks very graceful when her hair is
curled, and I want it insisted upon,' I made a note of
it with my pencil, and as I happened to glance at Miss
W. the corners of her mouth were twitching, upon
which I broke down and laughed. The mother bore it
very good-naturedly, but went on. She wanted to
know who would work some buttonholes in her daugh-
ter's dress that was not quite finished, etc., and it all
ended in her inviting me to make her a visit.

"Oct. 31, 1&66. Our faculty meetings always try me
in this respect : we do things that other colleges have
done before. We wait and ask for precedent. If the
earth had waited for a precedent, it never would have
turned on its axis !

"Sept. 22, 1868. I have written to-day to give up
the Nautical Almanac work. I do not feel sure that it
will be for the best, but I am sure that I could not

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 1 75

hold the almanac and the college, and father is happy
here.

" I tell Miss Lyman that my father is so much pleased
with everything here that I am afraid he will be im-
mersed ! " ^

Only those who knew Vassar College in its earlier
days can tell of the life that the father and daughter
led there for four years.

Mr. Mitchell died in 1869.

"Jan. 3, 1868. Meeting Dr. Hill at a private party,
I asked him if Harvard College would admit girls in
.fifty years. He said one of the most conservative
members of the faculty had said, within sixteen days,
that it would come about in twenty years. I asked him
if I could go into one of Professor Peirce's recitations.
He said there was nothing to keep me out, and that
he would let me know when they came.

" At eleven A.M., the next Friday, I stood at Professor
Peirce's door. As the professor came in I went towards
him, and asked him if I might attend his lecture. He
said ' Yes.' I said ' Can you not say '* I shall be happy
to have you "? ' and he said * I shall be happy to have
you,' but he didn't look happy !

** It was with some little embarrassment that Mrs.
K. and I seated ourselves. Sixteen young men came
into the room ; after the first glance at us there was not
another look, and the lecture went on. Professor Peirce
had filled the blackboard with formulae, and went on
developing them. He walked backwards and forwards

^ Vassar College, though professedly unsectarian, was mainly under Baptist
controL

1/6 MARIA MITCHELL

all the time, thinking it out as he went. The students at
first all took notes, but gradually they dropped off until
perhaps only half continued. When he made simple
mistakes they received it in silence ; only one, that one
his son (a tutor in college), remarked that he was wrong.
The steps of his lesson were all easy, but of course it
was impossible to tell whence he came or whither he
was going. . . .

"The recitation-room was very common-looking —
we could not tolerate such at Vassar. The forms and
benches of the recitation-room were better for taking
notes than ours are.)

'* The professor was polite enough to ask us into the
senior class, but I had an engagement. I asked him
if a young lady presented herself at the door he could
keep her out, and he said ' No, and I shouldn't.' I told
him I would send some of my girls.

"Oct. IS, 1868. Resolved, in case of my outliving
father and being in good health, to give my efforts to
the intellectual culture of women, without regard to
salary ; if possible, connect myself with liberal Chris-
tian institutions, believing, as I do, that happiness and
growth in this life are best promoted by them, and that
what is good in this life is good in any life."

In August, 1869, Miss Mitchell, with several of her
Vassar students, went to Burlington, la., to observe the
total eclipse of the sun. She wrote a popular account
of her observations, which was printed in " Hours at
Home " for September, 1 869. Her records were pub-
lished in Professor Coffin's report, as she was a member
of his party.

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 177

" Sept. 26, 1 87 1. My classes came in to-day for the
first time ; twenty-five students — more than ever be-
fore ; fine, splendid-looking girls. I felt almost frightened
at the responsibility which came into my hands — of the
possible twist which I might give them.

** 1871. I never look upon the mass of girls going
into our dining-room or chapel without feeling their
nobility, the sovereignty of their pure spirit."

The following letter from Miss Mitchell, though
written at a later date, gives an idea of the practical
observing done by her classes:

My dear Miss : f reply to your questions concerning the

observatory which you propose to establish. And, first, let me con-
gratulate you that you begin smalL A large telescope is a great
luxury, but it is an enormous expense, and not at all necessary for
teaching. . . . My beginning class uses only a small portable
equatorial. It stands out-doors from 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. The
girls are encoiuaged to use it : they are expected to determine the
rotation of the sun on its axis by watching the spots — the same
for the planet Jupiter ; they determine the revolution of Titan by
watching its motions, the retrograde and direct motion of the
planets among the stars, the position of the sun with reference to
its setting in winter and summer, the phases of Venus. All their
book learning in astronomy should be mathematical. The astron-
omy which is not mathematical in what is so ludicrously called
** Geography of the Heavens " — is not astronomy at all.

My senior class, generally small, say six, is received as a class,
but in practical astronomy each girl is taught separately. I believe
in small classes. I instruct them separately, first in the use of the
meridian instrument, and next in that of the equatorial. They
obtain the time for the college by meridian passage of stars ; they
use the equatorial just as far as they can do with very insufficient
mechanism. We work wholly on planets, and they are taught to

1/8 MARIA MITCHELL

find a planet at any hour of the day, to make drawings of what
they see, and to determine positions of planets and satellites.
With the clock and chronograph they determine difference of right
ascension of objects by the electric mode of recording. They
make, sometimes, very accurate drawings, and they learn to know
the satellites of Saturn (Titan, Rhea, etc.) by their different physi-
ognomy, as they would persons. They have sometimes measured
diameters.

If you add to your observatory a meridian instrument, I should
advise a small one. Size is not so important as people generally
suppose. Nicety and accuracy are what is needed in all scientific
work ; startiing effects by large telescopes and high powers are too
suggestive of sensational advertisement.

The relation between herself and her pupils was
quite remarkable — it was very cordial and intimate ; she
spoke of them always as her " girls/' but at the same
time she required their very best work, and was intoler-
ant of shirking, or of an ambition to do what nature
never intended the girl in question to do.

One of her pupils writes thus : ** If it were only
possible to tell you of what Professor Mitchell did for
one of her girls ! ' Her girls ! ' It meant so much to
come into daily contact with such a woman ! There is
no need of speaking of her ability; the world knows
what that was. But as her class-room was unique, hav-
ing something of home in its belongings, so its atmos-
phere differed from that of all others. Anxiety and
nervous strain were left outside of the door. Perhaps
one clue to her influence may be found in her remark
to the senior class in astronomy when 'y6 entered upon
its last year : * We are women studying together.'

" Occasionally it happened that work requiring two

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 179

hours or more to prepare called for little time in the
class. Then would come one of those treats which she
bestowed so freely upon her girls, and which seemed to
put them in touch with the great outside world. Let-
ters from astronomers in Europe or America, or from
members of their families, giving delightful glimpses
of home life; stories of her travels and of visits to
famous people; accounts of scientific conventions and
of large gatherings of women, — not so common then
as now, — gave her listeners a wider outlook and new
interests.

" Professor Mitchell was chairman of a standing com-
mittee of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Women, — that on women's work in science,
— and some of her students did their first work for
women's organizations in gathering statistics and filling
out blanks which she distributed among them.

" The benefits derived from my college course were
manifold, but time and money would have been well
spent had there been no return but that of two years'
intercourse with Maria Mitchell."

Another pupil, and later her successor at Vassar
College, Miss Mary W. Whitney, has said of her
method of teaching : "As a teacher, Miss Mitchell's
gift was that of stimulus, not that of drill. She could
not drill ; she would not drive. But no honest student
could escape the pressure of her strong will and earnest
intent. The marking system she held in contempt, and
wished to have nothing to do with it. ' You cannot
mark a human mind,' she said, * because there is no
intellectual unit;' and upon taking up her duties as

l8o MARIA MITCHELL

professor she stipulated that she should not be held
responsible for a strict application of the system."

"July, 1887. My students used to say that my way
of teaching was like that of the man who said to his
son, * There are the letters of the English alphabet —
go into that corner and learn them/

*' It is not exactly my way, but I do think, as a gen-
eral rule, that teachers talk too much ! A book is a very
good institution ! To read a book, to think it over,
and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book
which will not repay some hard thought is not worth
publishing. The fashion of lecturing is becoming a
rage ; the teacher shows herself off, and she does not
try enough to develop her pupils.

** The greatest object in educating is to give a right
habit of study. . , .

"... Not too much mechanical apparatus — let
the imagination have some play; a cube may be shown
by a model, but let the drawing upon the blackboard
represent the cube ; and if possible let Nature be the
blackboard ; spread your triangles upon land and sky.

** One of my pupils always threw her triangles on the
celestial vault above her head. ...

" A small apparatus well used will do wonders. A
celebrated chemist ordered his servant to bring in the
laboratory — on a tray! Newton rolled up the cover
of a book; he put a small glass at one end, and a large
brain at the other — it was enough.

.........

" When a student asks me, * What specialty shall I

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE l8l

follow?' I answer, 'Adopt some one, if none draws
you, and wait.' I am confident that she will find the
specialty engrossing.

"Feb. lo, 1887. When I came to Vassar, I re-
gretted that Mr. Vassar did not give full scholarships.
By degrees, I learned to think his plan of giving half
scholarships better; and to-day I am ready to say,
* Give no scholarships at all.'

" I find a helping-hand lifts the girl as crutches do ;
she learns to like the help which is not self-help.

" If a girl has the public school, and wants enough
to learn, she will learn. It is hard, but she was born to
hardness — she cannot dodge it. Labor is her inheri-
tance.

" I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating
music. I mourn it. Should I go to a music-school,
therefore ? No, avoid the music-school ; it is a very ex-
pensive branch of study. When the public school has
taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, the boy or girl
has his or her tools ; let them use these tools, and get a
few hours for study every day.

"... Do not give educational aid to sickly young
people. The old idea that the feeble young man must
be fitted for the ministry, because the more sickly the
more saintly, has gone out. Health of body is not only
an accompaniment of health of mind, but is the cause ;
the converse may be true, — that health of mind causes
health of body ; but we all know that intellectual cheer
and vivacity act upon the mind. If the gymnastic
exercise helps the mind, the concert or the theatre
improves the health of the body.

1 82 MARIA MITCHELL

" Let the unfortunate young woman whose health is
delicate take to the culture of the woods and fields, or
raise strawberries, and avoid teaching.

" Better give a young girl who is poor a common-
school education, a little lift, and tell her to work out
her own career. If she have a distaste to the homely
routine of life, leave her the opportunity to try any
other career, but let her understand that she stands or
falls by herself.

"... Not every girl should go to college. The
over-burdened mother of a large family has a right
to be aided by her daughter's hands. I would aid the
mother and not the daughter.

** I would not put the exceptionally smart girl from a
very poor family into college, unless she is a genius ;
and a genius should wait some years to prove her
genius.

** Endow the already established institution with
money. Endow the woman who shows genius with
time.

" A case at Johns Hopkins University is an excellent
one. A young woman goes into the institution who is
already a scholar ; she shows what she can do, and she
takes a scholarship ; she is not placed in a happy valley
of do nothing, — she is put into a workshop, where she
can work. ...

** . . . We are all apt to say, * Could we have had
the opportunity in life that our neighbor had,' — and
we leave the unfinished sentence to imply that we
should have been geniuses.

" No one ever says, * If I had not had such golden

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 183

opportunities thrust upon me, I might have developed
by a struggle ' ! But why look back at all? Why turn
your eyes to your shadow, when, by looking upward,
you see your rainbow in the same direction?

" But our want of opportunity was our opportunity
— our privations were our privileges — our needs were
stimulants; we are what we are because we had little
and wanted much ; and it is hard to tell which was the
more powerful factor. . . .

'' Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses.
• • ••••■••

" The Russian Czar determined to found an observ-
atory, and the first thing he did was to take a million
dollars from the government treasury. He sends to
America to order a thirty-five inch telescope from
Alvan Clark, — not to promote science, but to surpass
other nations in the size of his glass. * To him that
hath shall be given.' Read it, *To him that hath
should be given.'

" To give wisely is hard. I do not wonder that the
millionaire founds a new college — why should he not?
Millionaires are few, and he is a man by himself — he
must have views, or he could not have earned a million.
But let the man or woman of ordinary wealth seek out
the best institution already started, — the best girl
already in college, — and give the endowment.

"I knew a rich woman who wished to give aid to
some girls' school, and she travelled in order to find
that institution which gave the most solid learning with

1 84 MARIA MITCHELL

the least show. She found it where few would expect
it, — in Tennessee. It was worth while to travel.

"The aid that comes need not be money; let it be a
careful consideration of the object, and an evident
interest in the cause.

" When you aid a teacher, you improve the educa-
tion of your children. It is a wonder that teachers
work as well as they do. I never look at a group of
them without using, mentally, the expression, ' The
noble army of martyrs ' !

** The chemist should have had a laboratory, and the
observatory should have had an astronomer; but we
are too apt to bestow money where there is no man,
and to find a man where there is no money.

• .•••.*..

" If every girl who is aided were a very high order of
scholar, scholarship would undoubtedly conquer pov-
erty ; but a large part of the aided students are ordi-
nary. They lack, at least, executive power, as their
ancestors probably did. Poverty is a misfortune ; mis-
fortunes are often the result of blamable indiscretion,
extravagance, etc.

** It is one of the many blessings of poverty that
one is not obliged to * give wisely.' "

1866. To her students : "I cannot expect to make
astronomers, but I do expect that you will invigorate
your minds by the effort at healthy modes of thinking.
. . . When we are chafed and fretted by small cares,
a look at the stars will show us the littleness of our
own interests.

"... But star-gazing is not science. The

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 185

entrance to astronomy is through mathematics. You
must make up your mind to steady and earnest work.
You must be content to get on slowly if you only get
on thoroughly. . . .

" The phrase * popular science ' has in itself a touch
of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not
scientific.

" The laws which govern the motions of the sun, the
earth, planets, and other bodies in the universe, cannot
be understood and demonstrated without a solid basis
of mathematical learning.

" Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a
hymn of praise to God.

" You cannot study anything persistently for years
without becoming learned, and although I would not
hold reputation up to you as a very high object of
ambition, it is a wayside flower which you are sure to
have catch at your skirts.

" Whatever apology other women may have for loose,
ill-finished work, or work not finished at all, you will
have none.

" When you leave Vassar College, you leave it the best
educated women in the world. Living a little outside
of the college, beyond the reach of the little currents
that go up and down the corridors, I think I am a fairer
judge of your advantages than you can be yourselves ;
and when I say you will be the best educated women in
the world, I do not mean the education of text-books,
and class-rooms, and apparatus, only, but that broader

4»««»i

1 86 MARIA MITCHELL

education which you receive unconsciously, that higher
teaching which comes to you, all unknown to the givers,
from daily association with the noble-souled women who
are around you."

** 1871. When astronomers compare observations
made by different persons, they cannot neglect the
constitutional peculiarities of the individuals, and there
enters into these computations a quantity called ' per-
sonal equation/ In common terms, it is that difference
between two individuals from which results a difference
in the time which they require to receive and note an
occurrence. If one sees a star at one instant, and
records it, the record of another, of the same thing, is
not the same.

**It is true, also, that the same individual is not the
same at all times ; so that between two individuals there
is a mean or middle individual, and each individual has
a mean or middle self, which is not the man of to-day,
nor the man of yesterday, nor the man of to-morrow ;
but a middle man among these different selves. . . .

" We especially need imagination in science. It is
not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat
beauty and poetry.

" There will come with the greater love of science
greater love to one another. Living more nearly to
Nature is living farther from the world and from its
follies, but nearer to the world's people ; it is to be of
them, with them, and for them, and especially for their
improvement. We cannot see how impartially Nature
gives of her riches to all, without loving all, and helping

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 1 87

all; and if we cannot learn through Nature's laws the
certainty of spiritual truths, we can at least learn to pro-
mote spiritual growth while we are together, and live
in a trusting hope of a greater growth in the future.

"... The great gain would be freedom of thought.
Women, more than men, are bound by tradition and
authority. What the father, the brother, the doctor,
and the minister have said has been received undoubt-
ingly. Until women throw off this reverence for
authority they will not develop. When they do this,
when they come to truth through their investigations,
when doubt leads them to discovery, the truth which
they get will be theirs, and their minds will work on and
on unfettered.

[1874.] ** I am but a woman !

" For women there are, undoubtedly, great difficulties
in the path, but so much the more to overcome. First,
no woman should say, * I am but a woman ! ' But a
woman ! What more can you ask to be ?

"Born a woman — born with the average brain of
humanity — born with n^oijc than the average heart —
if you are mortal, what higher destiny could you have?
No matter where you are nor what you are, you are a
power — your influence is incalculable ; personal in-
fluence is always underrated by the person. We are
all centres of spheres — we see the portions of the sphere
above us, and we see how little we affect it. We forget
the part of the sphere around and before us — it ex-
tends just as far every way.

" Another common saying, ' It isn't the way,' etc. Who
settles the way? Is there any one so forgetful of the

1 88 MARIA MITCHELL

sovereignty bestowed on her by God that she accepts a
leader — one who shall capture her mind ?

" There is this great danger in student life. Now, we
rest all upon what Socrates said, or what Copernicus
taught ; how can we dispute authority which has come
down to us, all established, for ages ?

" We must at least question it ; we cannot accept any-
thing as granted, beyond the first mathematical form-
ulae. Question everything else.

** * The world is round, and like a ball
Seems swinging in the air.* >

" No such thing ! the world is not round, it does not
swing, and it doesn't seem to swing !

" I know I shall be called heterodox, and that unseen
lightning flashes and unheard thunderbolts will be play-
ing around my head, when I say that women will never
be profound students in any other department except
music while they give four hours a day to the practice
of music. I should by all means encourage every
woman who is born with musical gifts to study music ;
but study it as a science and an art, and not as an
accomplishment; and to every woman who is not
musical, I should say, * Don't study it at all ; ' you can-
not afford four hours a day, out of some years of your
life, just to be agreeable in company upon possible
occasions.

"If for four hours a day you studied, year after year,
the science of language, for instance, do you suppose

* From Peter Parley's Primary Geography.

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 189

you would not be a linguist? Do you put the mere
pleasing of some social party, and the reception of a
few compliments, against the mental development of
four hours a day of study of something for which you
were born?

" When I see that girls who are required by their
parents to go through with the irksome practising
really become respectable performers, I wonder what
four hours a day at something which they loved, and
for which God designed them, would do for them.

** I should think that to a real scientist in music there
would be something mortifying in this rush of all
women into music ; as there would be to me if I saw
every girl learning the constellations, and then thinking
she was an astronomer !

"Jan. 8, 1876. At the meeting of graduates at the
Deacon House, the speeches that were made were
mainly those of Dr. R. and Professor B. I am sorry
now that I did not at least say that the college is what
it is mainly because the early students pushed up the
course to a collegiate standard.

"Jan. 25, 1876. It has become a serious question
with me whether it is not my duty to beg money for
the observatory, while what I really long for is a quiet
life of scientific speculation. I want to sit down and
study on the observations made by myself and others."

During her later years at Vassar, Miss Mitchell
interested herself personally in raising a fund to endow
the chair of astronomy. In March, 1886, she wrote:
" I have been in New York quite lately, and am quite
hopeful that Miss will do something for Vassar.

IQO MARIA MITCHELL

Mrs. C, of Newburyport, is to ask Whittier, who is said

to be rich, and told me to get anything I could out

of her father. But after all I am a poor beggar; my
ideas are small ! "

Since Miss Mitchell's death, the fund has been com-
pleted by the alumnae, and is known as the Maria
Mitchell Endowment Fund. With $10,000 appro-
priated by the trustees it amounts to $50,000.

"June 18, 1876. I had imagined the Emperor of
Brazil to be a dark, swarthy, tall man, of forty-five
years; that he would not really have a crown upon his
head, but that I should feel it was somewhere around,
handy-like, and that I should know I was in royal
presence. But he turns out to be a large, old man, —
say, sixty-five, — broad-headed and broad-shouldered,
with a big white beard, and a very pleasant, even chatty,
manner.

"Once inside of the dome, he seemed to feel at
home; to my astonishment he asked if Alvan Clark
made the glass of the equatorial. As he stepped into
the meridian-room, and saw the instruments, he said,
'Collimators?^ I said, * You have been in observa-
tories before.' * Oh, yes^ Cambridge and Washington,'
he replied. He seemed much more interested in the
observatory than I could possibly expect. I asked him
to go on top of the roof, and he said he had not
time; yet he stayed long enough to go up several
times. I am told that he follows out, remarkably, his
own ideas as to his movements."

In 1878, Miss Mitchell went to Denver, Colorado, to
observe the total eclipse of the sun. She was accom-

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 19 1

panied by several of her former pupils. She prepared
an account of this eclipse, which will be found in
Chapter XL

" Aug. 20, 1878. Dr. Raymond [President of Vassar
College] is dead. I cannot quite take it in. I have
never known the college without him, and it will make
all things different.

" Personally, I have always been fond of him ; he was
very enjoyable socially and intellectually. Officially he
was, in his relations to the students, perfect. He was
cautious to a fault, and has probably •been very wise in
his administration of college affairs. He was broad in
his religious views. He was not broad in his ideas
of women, and was made to broaden the education of
women by the women around him.

"June 18, 1 88 1. The dome party to-day was sixty-
two in number. It was breakfast, and we opened the
dome ; we seated forty in the dome and twenty in the
meridian-room."

This " dome party " requires a few words of explana-
tion, because it was unique among all the Vassar
festivities. The week before commencement, Miss
Mitchell's pupils would be informed of the approach-
ing gathering by a notice like the following :

CIRCULAR.

The annual dome party will be held at the observatory on Satur-
day, the 19th, at 6 P.M. You are cordially invited to be present.

M. M.

[As this gathering is highly intellectual, you are invited to bring
poems.]

192 MARIA MITCHELL

It was, at first, held in the evening, but during the
last years was a breakfast party, its character in other
respects remaining the same. Little tables were Spread
under the dome, around the big telescope ; the flowers
were roses from Miss Mitchell's own garden. The
" poems " were nonsense rhymes, in the writing of which
Miss Mitchell was an adept. Each student would have
a few verses of a more or less personal character,
written by Miss Mitchell, and there were others written
by the girls themselves ; some were impromptu ; others
were set to music, and sung by a selected glee-club.

"June 5, 1 88 1. We have written what we call our
dome poetry. Some nice poems have come in to us. I
think the Vassar girls, in the main, are magnificent,
they are so all-alive. . . .

"May20, 1882. Vassar is getting pretty. I gathered
lilies of the valley this morning. The young robins are
out in a tree close by us, and the phoebe has built, as
usual, under the front steps.

" I am rushing dome poetry, but so far show no alarm-
ing symptoms of brilliancy."

A former student writes as follows about the dome
poetry :

" At the time it was read, though it seemed mere
merry nonsense, it really served a more serious purpose
in the work of one who did nothing aimlessly. This
apparent nonsense served as the vehicle to convey an
expression of approbation, affection, criticism, or dis-
approval in such a merry mode that even the bitterest
draught seemed sweet.'*

'* 1881, July 5. We left Vassar, June 24, on the

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE 193

steamer * Galatea/ from New York to Providence. I
looked out of my state-room window, and saw a strange-
looking body in the northern sky. My heart sank ; I
knew instantly that it was a comet, and that I must
return to the observatory. Calling the young people
around me, and pointing it out to them, I had their
assurance that it was a comet, and nothing but a comet.

" We went to bed at nine, and I arose at six in the
morning. As soon as I could get my nieces started
for Providence, I started for Stonington, — the most
easy of the ways of getting to New York, as I should
avoid Point Judith.

" I went to the boat at the Stonington wharf about
noon, and remained on board until morning — there
were few passengers, it was very quiet, and I slept well.

" Arriving in New York, I took cars at 9 A.M. for
Poughkeepsie, and reached the college at dinner-time.
I went to work the same evening.

** As I could not tell at what time the comet would
pass the meridian, I stationed myself at the telescope in
the meridian-room by 10 P.M., and watched for the
comet to cross. As it approached the meridian, I saw
that it would go behind a scraggy apple-tree. I sent
for the watchman, Mr. Crumb, to come with a saw, and
cut off the upper limbs. He came back with an axe,
and chopped away vigorously ; but as one limb after
another fell, and I said, * I need more, cut away,' he
said, * I think I must cut down the whole tree.' I said,
* Cut it down.* I felt the barbarism of it, but I felt
more that a bird might have a nest in it.

" I found, when I went to breakfast the next morning.

194 MARIA MITCHELL

that the story had preceded me, and I was called
' George Washington/

" But for all this, I got almost no observation ; the
fog came up, and I had scarcely anything better than
an estimation. I saw the comet blaze out, just on the
edge of the field, and I could read its declination only.

"On the 28th, 29th, and July ist, I obtained good
meridian passages, and the R.A. must be very good.

"Jan. 12, 1882. There is a strange sentence in the
last paragraph of Dr. Jacobi's article on the study of
medicine by women, to the effect that it would be
better for the husband always to be superior to the
wife. Why? And if so, does not it condemn the ablest
women to a single life?

"March 13, 1882, 3 P.M. I. start for faculty, and
we probably shall elect what are called the * honor
girls.' I dread the struggle that is pretty certain to
come. Each of us has some favorite whom she wishes
to put into the highest class, and whom she honestly
believes to be of the highest order of merit. I never
have the whole ten to suit me, but I can truly say
that at this minute I do not care. I should be sorry
not to see S., and W., and P., and E., and G., and K.
on the list of the ten, but probably that is more than I
ought to expect. The whole system is demoralizing
and foolish. Girls study for prizes and not for learn-
ing, when * honors ' are at the end. The unscholarly
motive is wearing. If they studied for sound learning,
the cheer which would come with every day's gain
would be health-preserving.

"... I have seven advanced students, and to-

LIFE AT VASSAR COLLEGE. 195

day, when I looked around to see who should be called
to help look out for meteors, I could consider only one
of them not already overworked, and she was the post-
graduate, who took no honors, and never hurried, and
has always been an excellent student.

" . . . We are sending home some girls already
[November 14], and is among them. I am some-
what alarmed at the dropping down, but does

an enormous amount of work, belongs to every club,
and writes for every club and for the *Vassar Mis-
cellany,' etc. ; of course she has the headache most of
the time.

"Sometimes I am distressed for fear Dr. Clarke^ is
not so far wrong ; but I do not think it is the study — it
is the morbid conscientiousness of the girls, who think
they must work every minute.

"April 26, 1882. Miss Herschel came to the college
on the nth, and stayed three days. She is one of the
little girls whom I saw, twenty-three years since, playing
on the lawn at Sir John Herschers place, Collingwood.

"... Miss Herschel was just perfect as a guest ;
she fitted in beautifully. The teachers gave a reception
for her, gave her his poem, and Henry, the gar-
dener, found out that the man in whose employ he lost
a finger was her brother-in-law, in Leeds !

"Jan. 9, 1884. Mr. [Matthew] Arnold has been to
the college, and has given his lecture on Emerson.
The audience was made up of three hundred students,
and three hundred guests from town. Never was a man
listened to with so much attention. Whether he is right

^Author of " Sex in Education."

<

196 MARIA MITCHELL

in his judgment or not, he held his audience by his
manly way, his kindly dissection, and his graceful
English. Socially, he charmed us all. He chatted with
every one, he smiled on all. He said he was sorry to
leave the college, and that he felt he must come to
America again. We have not had such an awakening
for years. It was like a new volume of old English
poetry.

"March i6, 1885. In February, 1831, I counted
seconds for father, who observed the annular eclipse at
Nantucket. I was twelve and a half years old. In
1885, fifty-four years later, I counted seconds for a
class of students at Vassar ; it was the same eclipse, but
the sun was only about half-covered. Both days were
perfectly clear and cold."

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 1 97

CHAPTER X

1873

SECX)ND EUROPEAN TOUR — RUSSIA — FRANCES POWER CX)BBE —
" THE GLASGOW COLLEGE FOR GIRLS "

In 1873, Miss Mitchell spent the summer in Europe,
and availed herself of this opportunity to vjsit the
government observatory at Pulkova, in Russia.

"Eydkuhnen, Wednesday, July 30, 1873. Certainly,
I never in my life expected to spend twenty-
four hours in this small town, the frontier town
of Prussia. Here I remembered that our little bags
would be examined, and I asked the guard about it,
but he said we need not trouble ourselves ; we should
not be examined until we reached the first Russian
town of Wiersbelow. So, after a mile more of travel,
we came to Wiersbelow. Knowing that we should
keep our little compartment until we got to St. Peters-
burg, we had scattered our luggage about; gloves
were in one place, veil in another, shawl in another,
parasol in another, and books all around.

" The train stopped. Imagine our consternation !
Two officials entered the carriage, tall Russians in full
uniform, and seized everything — shawls, books, gloves,
bags ; and then, looking around very carefully, espied
W's poor little ragged handkerchief, and seized that, too,
as a contraband article ! We looked at one another.

198 MARIA MITCHELL

and said nothing. The tall Russian said something to
us; we looked at each other and sat still. The tall
Russians looked at one another, and there was almost
an official smile between them.

" Then one turned to me, and said, very distinctly,
* Passy-port.' *0h,' I said, 'the passports are all right;
where are they?' and we produced from our pockets
the passports prepared at Washington, with the official
seal, and we delivered them with a sort of air as if we
had said, * You'll find that they do things all right at
Washington.'

" The tall Russians got out, and I was about to breathe
freely, when they returned,, and said something else —
not a word did I understand ; they exchanged a look of
amusement, and W. and I, one of amazement ; then one
of them made signs to us to get out. The sign was
unmistakable, and we got out, and followed them into
an immense room, where were tables all around
covered with luggage, and about a hundred travellers
standing by; and our books, shawls, gloves, etc., were
thrown in a heap upon one of these tables, and we
awoke to the disagreeable consciousness that we were
in a custom-house, and only two out of a hundred
travellers, and that we did not understand one word of
Russian.

" But, of course, it could be only a few minutes of
delay, and if German and French failed, there is always
left the language of signs, and all would be right.

" After, perhaps, half an hour, two or three officials
approached us, and, holding the passports, began to
talk to us. How did they know that those two pass-

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 199

ports belonged to us ? Out of two hundred persons, how
could they at once see that the woman whose age was
given at more than half a century, and the lad whose
age was given at less than a score of years, were the
two fatigued and weary travellers who stood guarding
a small heap of gloves, books, handkerchiefs, and
shawls? Two of the officials held up the passports to
us, pointed to the blank page, shook their heads omi-
nously; the third took the passports, put them into his
vest pocket, buttoned up his coat, and motioned to us
to follow him.

" We followed ; he opened the door of an ordinary
carriage, waved his hand for us to get in, jumped in
himself, and we found we were started back. We could
not cross the line between Germany and Russia.

" We meekly asked where we were to go, and were
relieved when we found that we went back only to the
nearest town, but that the passports must be sent to
Konigsberg, sixty miles away, to be endorsed by the
Russian ambassador — it might take some days. W.
was very much inclined to refuse to go back and to
attempt a war of words, but it did not seem wise to me
to undertake a war against the Russian government; I
know our country does not lightly go into an * unpleas-
antness' of that kind. . . .

" So we went back to Eydkuhnen, — a little miserable
German village. We took rooms at the only hotel, and
there we stayed twenty-four hours. Before the end of
that time, we had visited every shop in the village, and
aired our German to most of our fellow-travellers whom
we met at the hotel.

200 MARIA MITCHELL

" The landlord took our part, and declared it waa
hard enough on simple travellers like ourselves to be
stopped in such a way, and that Russia was the only
country in Europe which was rigid in that respect.
Happily, our passports were back in twenty-four hours,
and we started again ; our trunks had been registered
for St. Petersburg, and to St. Petersburg they had
gone, ahead of us; and of the small heap of things
thrown down promiscuously at the custom-house, the
whole had not come back to us — it was not very im-
portant. I learned how to wear one glove instead of
two, or to go without.

"We had the ordeal of the custom-house to pass
again ; but once passed, and told that we were free to go
on, it was like going into a clear atmosphere from a
fog. We crossed the custom-house threshold into
another room, and we found ourselves in Russia, and
in an excellent, well-furnished, and cheery restaurant.
We lost the German smoke and the German beer; we
found hot coffee and clean table-cloths.

"We did not return to our dusty, red-velvet palace,
but we entered a clean, comfortable compartment, with
easy sofas, for the night. We started again for St.
Petersburg; we were now four days from London. I
will omit the details of a break-down that night, and
another change of cars. We had some sleep, and awoke
in the morning to enjoy Russia,

" And, first, of Russian railroads. When the railroads
of Russia were planned, the Emperor Nicholas allowed
a large sum of money for the building. The engineer
showed him his plan. The road wound by slight

I

I

I

J

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 20I

curves from one town to another. This did not suit
the emperor at all. He took his ruler, put it down
upon the table, and said : ' I choose to have my roads
run so.' Of course the engineer assented — he had
his large fund granted; a straight road was much
cheaper to build than a curved one. As a consequence,
he built and furnished an excellent road.

" At every * verst,' which is not quite a mile, a small
house is placed at the roadside, on which, in very large
figures, the number of versts from St. Petersburg is
told. The train runs very smoothly and very slowly ;
twenty miles an hour is about the rate. Of course the
journey seemed long. For a large part of the way it
was an uninhabited, level plain ; so green, however, that
it seemed like travelling on prairies. Occasionally we
passed a dreary little village of small huts, and as we
neared St. Petersburg we passed larger and better
built towns, which the dome of some cathedral lighted
up for miles.

" The road was enlivened, too, by another peculiarity.
The restaurants were all adorned by flags of all colors,
and festooned by vines. At one place the green arches
ran across the road, and we passed under a bower of
evergreens. I accepted this, at first, as a Russian pe-
culiarity, and was surprised that so much attention was
paid to travellers ; but I learned that it was not for us
at all. The Duke of Edinboro* had passed over the
road a few days before, on his way to St. Petersburg,
for his betrothal to the only daughter of the czar, and
the decorations were for him ; and so we felt that we
were of the party, although we had not been asked.

202

MARIA MITCHELL

"We approached St. Petersburg just at night, and
caught the play of the sunlight on the domes. It is a
city of domes — blue domes, green domes, white domes,
and, above all, the golden dome of the Cathedral of St.
Isaac's.

" It is almost never a single dome. St. Isaac's Central,
gilded dome looms up above its fellow domes, but
four smaller ones surround it.

" It was summer ; the temperature was delightful,
about like our October.^ The showers were frequent,
there was no dust and no sultry air.

" There must be a great deal of nice mechanical work
required in St. Petersburg, for on the Nevsky Perspec-
tive, the principal street, there were a great many
shops in which graduating and measuring instruments
of very nice workmanship were for sale. Especially
I noticed the excellence of the thermometers, and I
naturally stopped to read them. Figures are a com-
mon language, but it was clear that I was in another
planet; I could not read the thermometers! I judged
that the weather was warm eifough for the thermometer
to be at 68. I read, say, 16. And then I remem-
bered that the Russians do not put their freezing point
at 32, as we do, and I was obliged to go through a
troublesome calculation before I could tell how warm
it was.

" But I came to a still stranger experience. I dated
my letters August 3, and went to my banker's, before
I sealed them, to see if there were letters for me. The
banker's little calendar was hanging by his desk, and
the day of the month was on exhibition, in large

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 203

figures. I read, July 22 ! This was distressing ! Was
I like Alice in Wonderland? Did time go backward?
Surely, I had dated Augusf 3. Could I be in error
twelve days? And then I perceived that twelve days
was just the difference of old and new calendars.

" How many times I had taught students that the
Russians still counted their time by the ' old style,' but
had never learned it myself! And so I was obliged to
teach myself new lessons in science. The earth turns
on its axis just the same in Russia as in Boston, but
you don't get out of the sunlight at the Boston sunset
hour.

"When the thermometer stands at 32 in St. Peters-
burg, it does not freeze as it does in Boston. On the
contrary, it is very warm in St. Petersburg, for it
means what 104 does in Boston. And if you leave
London on the 2 2d of July, and are five days on the
way to St. Petersburg, a week after you get there it
is still the 22d of July ! And we complain that the
day is too short !

" Another peculiarity. We strolled over the city all
day; we came back to our hotel tired; we took our
tea; we talked over the day; we wrote to our friends;
we planned for the next day ; we were ready to retire.
We walked to the window — the sun was striking on all
the chimney tops. It doesn't seem to be right even
for the lark to go to sleep while the sun shines. We
looked at our watches; but the watches said nine
o'clock, and we went off to our beds in daytime ; and
we awoke after the first nap to perceive that the sun
still shone into the room.

204 MARIA MITCHELL

"Like all careful aunts, I was unwilling that my
nephew should be out alone at night. He was desirous
of doing the right thing, but urged that at home, as a
little boy, he was always allowed to be out until dark,
and he asked if he could stay out until dark ! Alas for
the poor lad ! There was no dark at all ! I could not
consent for him to be out all night, and ttie twilight
was not over. You may read and read that the sum-
mer day at St. Petersburg is twenty hours long, but
until you see that the sun scarcely sets, you cannot take
it m.

" I wondered whether the laboring man worked eight
or ten hours under my window ; it seemed to me that
he was sawing wood the whole twenty-four !

" W. came in one night after a stroll, and described a
Ibeautiful square which he had come upon accidentally.
I listened with great interest, and said, * I must go there
in the morning; what is the name of it?' — *I don't
know,* he replied. — * Why didn't you read the sign? * I
asked. — ' I can't read,* was the reply. — ' Oh, no ; but
why didn't you ask some one?* — 'I can't speak,' he
answered. Neither reading nor speaking, we had to
learn St. Petersburg by our observation, and it is the
best way. Most travellers read too much.

"There are learned institutions in St. Petersburg:
universities, libraries, picture-galleries, and museums;
but the first institution with which I became acquainted
was the drosky. The drosky is a very, very small
phaeton. It has the driver's seat in front, and a very
narrow seat behind him. One person can have room
enough on this second seat, but it usually carries two.

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 205

Invariably the drosky is lined with dark-blue cloth,
and the drosky-driver wears a dark-blue wrapper, com-
ing to the feet, girded around the waist by a crimson
sash. He also wears a bell-shaped hat, turned up at
the side. You are a little in doubt, if you see him at
first separated from his drosky, whether he is a market-
woman or a serving-man, the dress being very much
like a morning wrapper. But he is rarely six feet away
from his carriage, and usually he is upon it, sound
asleep !

'*The trunks having gone to St. Petersburg in
advance of ourselves, our first duty was to get pos-
session of them. They were at the custom-house,
across the city. My nephew and I jumped upon a
drosky — we could not say that we were really in the
drosky, for the seat was too short. The drosky-driver
started off his horse over the cobble-stones at a terrible
rate. I could not keep my seat, and I clung to W.
He shouted, * Don't hold by me ; I shall be out the next
minute ! ' What could be done ? I was sure I shouldn't
stay on half a minute. Blessings on the red sash of the
drosky-man — I caught at that ! He drove faster and
faster, and I clung tighter and tighter, but alarmed
at two immense dangers : first, that I should stop his
breath by dragging the girdle so tightly ; and, next, that
when it became unendurable to him, he would loosen
it in front.

" I could not perceive that he was aware of my exist-
ence at all ! He had only one object in life, — to carry
us across the city to our place of destination, and to get
his copecks in return.

206 MARIA MITCHELL

" In a few days I learned to like the jolly vehicles
very much. They are so numerous that you may
pick one up on any street, whenever you are tired of
walking.

" My principal object in visiting St. Petersburg was
the astronomical observatory at Pulkova, some twelve
miles distant.

" I had letters to the director, Otto von Struve, but
our consul declared that I must also have one from
him, for Struve was a very great man. I, of course,
accepted it.

" We made the journey by rail and coach, but it
would be better to drive the whole way.

" Most observatories are temples of silence, and quiet
reigns. As we drove into the grounds at Pulkova, a
small crowd of children of all ages, and servants of all
degrees, came out to meet us. They did not come out
to do us honor, but to gaze at us. I could not under-
stand it until I learned that the director of the observa-
tory has a large number of aids, and they, with all their
families, live in large houses, connected with the central
building by covered ways.

" All about the grounds, too, were small observa-
tories, — little temples, — in which young men were
practising for observations on the transit of Venus.
These little buildings, I afterwards learned, were to be
taken down and transported, instruments and all, to the
coast of Asia.

*' The director of the observatory is Otto Struve —
his father, Wilhelm Struve, preceded him in this office.
Properly, the director is Herr Von Struve ; but the old

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 20/

Russian custom is still in use, and the servants call him
Wilhelm-vitch ; that is, * the son of William.'

" When I bought a photograph of the present
emperor, Alexander, I saw that he was called Nicholas-
vitch.

" Herr Struve received us courteously, and an assistant,
was called to show us the instruments. All observa-
tories are much alike ; therefore I will not describe this,
except in its peculiarities. One of these was the pres-
ence of small, light, portable rooms, i,e,y baseless boxes,
which rolled over the instruments to protect them ;
two sides were of wood, and two sides of green silk
curtains, which could, of course, be turned aside when
the boxes, or little rooms, were rolled over the appa-
ratus. Being covered in this way, the heavy shutters
can be left open for weeks at a time.

" Everything was on a large scale — the rooms were
immense.

" The director has three assistants who are called
' elder astronomers,* and two who are called * adjunct
astronomers.' Each of these has a servant devoted to
him. I asked one of the elder astronomers if he had
rooms in the observatory, and he answered, ' Yes, my
rooms are 94 ft. by 50.*

" They seem to be amused at the size of their lodg-
ings, for Mr. Struve, when he told me of his apartments,
gave me at once the dimensions, — 200 ft. by ICXD ft.

** The room in which we dined with the family of
Herr Struve was immense. I spoke of it, and he said,
*We cannot open our windows in the winter, — the
winters are so severe, — and so we must have good air

208 MARIA MITCHELL

without it/ Their drawing-room was also very large ;
the chairs (innumerable, it seemed to me) stood stiffly
around the walls of the room. The floor was painted
and highly varnished, and flower-pots were at the nu-
merous windows on little stands. It was scrupulously
neat everywhere.

" There was very little ceremony at dinner ; we had
the delicious wild strawberries of the country in great
profusion ; and the talk, the best part of the dinner,
was in German, Russian, and English.

" Madame Struve spoke German, Russian, and French,
and complained that she could not speak English.
She said that she had spent three weeks with an English
lady, and that she must be very stupid not to speak
English.

" I noticed that in one of the rooms, which was not
so very immense, there was a circular table, a small
centre-carpet, and chairs around the table; I have
been told that * in society ' in Russia, the ladies sit in a
circle, and the gentlemen walk around and talk con-
secutively with the ladies, — kindly giving to each a
share of their attention.

" They assured me that the winters were charming,
the sleighing constant, and the social gatherings cheery ;
but think of four hours, only, of daylight in the
depth of the winter. Their dread was the spring and
the autumn, when the mud is deep.

" Everything in the observatory which could be was
built of wood. They have the fir, which is very inde-
structible ; it is supposed to show no mark of change in
two hundred years.

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 209

" Wood is so susceptible of ornamentation that the
pretty villages of Russia — and there are some that look
like New England villages — struck us very pleasantly,
after the stone and brick villages of England,

" I try, when I am abroad, to see in what they are
superior to us, — not in what they are inferior.

" Our great idea is, of course, freedom and self-govern-
ment ; probably in that we are ahead of the rest of the
world, although we are certainly not so much in advance
as we suppose ; but we are sufficiently inflated with our
own greatness to let that subject take care of itself when
we travel. We travel to learn ; and I have never been
in any country where they did not do something better
than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think,
catch some inspiration from heights above our own —
as in the art of Italy, the learning of England, and the
philosophy of Germany.

*' Let us take the scientific position of Russia. When,
half a century ago, John Quincy Adams proposed the
establishment of an astronomical observatory, at a cost
of $icXD,ooo, it was ridiculed by the newspapers, con-
sidered Utopian, and dismissed from the public mind.
When our government, a few years since, voted an
appropriation of $50,000 for a telescope for the National
Observatory, it was considered magnificent. Yet, a
quarter of a century since (1838), Russia founded an
astronomical observatory. The government spent
$200,000 on instruments, $1,500,000 on buildings, and
annually appropriated $38,000 for salaries of observ-
ers. I naturally thought that a million and a half
dollars, and Oriental ideas, combined, would make the

210 MARIA MITCHELL

observatory a showy place ; I expected that the obser-
vatory would be surmounted by a gilded dome, and
that * pearly gates ' would open as I approached. There
is not even a dome !

" The central observation-room is a cylinder, and its
doors swing back on hinges. Wherever it is possible,
wood is used, instead of stone or brick. I could not
detect, in the whole structure, anything like carving,
gilding, or painting, for mere show. It was all for
science ; and its ornamentations were adapted to its
uses, and came at their demand.

** In our country, the man of science leads an isolated
life. If he has capabilities of administration, our gov-
ernment does not yet believe in them.

" The director of the observatory at Pulkova has the
military rank of general, and he is privy councillor to
the czar. Every subordinate has also his military
position — he is a soldier.

" What would you think of it, if the director of any
observatory were one of the President's cabinet at
Washington, in virtue of his position? Struve's posi-
tion is that of a member of the President's cabinet.

" Here is another difference : Ours is a democratic
country. We recognize no caste ; we are born * free
and equal.' We honor labor; work is ennobling.
These expressions we are all accustomed to use. Do
we live up to them? Many a rich man, many a man
in fine social position, has married a school-teacher;
but I never heard it spoken of as a source of pride in
the alliance until I went to despotic Russia. Struve
told me, as he would have told of any other honor

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 211

which had been his, that his wife, as a girl, had taught
school in St. Petersburg. And then Madame Struve
joined in the conversation, and told me how much the
subject of woman's education still held her interest.

** St. Petersburg is about the size of Philadelphia.
Struve said, * There are thousands of women studying
science in St. Petersburg.' How many thousand
women do you suppose are studying science in the
whole State of New York? I doubt if there are five
hundred.

" Then again, as to language. It is rare, even among
the common people, to meet one who speaks one lan-
guage only. If you can speak no Russian, try your
poor French, your poor German, or your good Eng-
lish. You may be sure that the shopkeeper will answer
in one or another, and even the drosky-driver picks up
a little of some one of them.

" Of late, the Russian government has founded a
medical school for women, giving them advantages
which are given to men, and the same rank when they
graduate ; the czar himself contributed largely to the
fund.

" One wonders, in a country so rich as ours, that so
few men and women gratify their tastes by founding
scholarships and aids for the tuition of girls — it must
be such a pleasant way of spending money.

"Then as regards religion. I am never in a country
where the Catholic or Greek church is dominant, but I
see with admiration the zeal of its followers. I may
pity their delusions, but I must admire their devotion.
If you look around in one of our churches upon the

212 MARIA MITCHELL

congregation, five-sixths are women, and in some towns
nineteen-twentieths ; and if you form a judgment from
that fact, you would suppose that religion was entirely
a 'woman's right/ In a Catholic church or Greek
church, the men are not only as numerous as the
women, but they are as intense in their worship. Well-
dressed men, with good heads, will prostrate themselves
before the image of the Holy Virgin as many times,
and as devoutly, as the beggar-woman.

** I think I saw a Russian gentleman at St. Isaac's
touch his forehead to the floor, rise and stand erect,
touch the floor again, and rise again, ten times in as
many minutes ; and we were one day forbidden entrance
to a church because the czar was about to say his
prayers; we found he was making the pilgrimage of
some seventy churches, and praying in each one.

" Christians who believe in public prayer, and who
claim that we should be instant in prayer, would con-
sider it a severe tax upon their energies to pray seventy
times a day — they don't care to do it !

" Then there is the democracy of the church. There
are no pews to be sold to the highest bidder — no * re-
served seats ; ' the oneness and equality before God are
always recognized. A Russian gentleman, as he prays,
does not look around, and move away from the poor
beggar next to him. At St. Peter's the crowd stands
or kneels — at St. Isaac's they stand ; and they stand
literally on the same plane.

** I noticed in the crowd at St. Isaac's, one festival day,
young girls who were having a friendly chat ; but their
religion was ever in their thoughts, and they crossed

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 213

themselves certainly once a minute. Their religion is
not an affair of Sunday, but of every day in the week.

** The drosky-driver, certainly the most stupid class of
my acquaintance in Russia, never forgets his prayers ;
if his passenger is never so much in a hurry, and the
bribe never so high, the drosky-driver will check his
horse, and make the sign of the cross as he passes the
little image of the Virgin, — so small, perhaps, that you
have not noticed it until you wonder why he slackens
his pace.

** Then as to government. We boast of our national
freedom, and we talk about universal suffrage, the
* Home of the Free,' etc. Yet the serfs in Russia were
freed in March, 1861, just before our Civil war began.
They freed their serfs without any war, and each serf
received some acres of land. They freed twenty-three
millions, and we freed four or five millions of blacks ;
and all of us, who are old enough, remember that one
of the fears in freeing the slaves was the number of
lawless and ignorant blacks who, it was supposed,
would come to the North.

" We talk about universal suffrage ; a larger part of
the antiquated Russians vote than of Americans. Just
as I came away from St. Petersburg I met a Moscow
family, travelling. We occupied the same compartment
car. It was a family consisting of a lady and her three
daughters. When they found where I had been, they
asked me, in excellent English, what had carried me to
St. Petersburg, and then, why I was interested in
Pulkova ; and so I must tell them about American girls,
and so, of course, of Vassar College.

214 MARIA MITCHELL

** They plied me with questions : * Do you have
women in your faculty? Do men and women hold the
same rank?* I returned the questions: *Is there a
girl's college in Moscow?' *No/ said the youngest
sister, with a sigh, * we are always going to have one/
The eldest sister asked : * Do women vote in Amer-
ica? ' * No,' I said. * Do women vote in Russia? ' She
said * No ; ' but her mother interrupted her, and there
was a spicy conversation between them, in Russian, and
then the mother, who had rarely spoken, turned to me,
and said : * I vote, but I do not go to the polls myself.
I send somebody to represent me ; my vote rests upon
my property/

" Have you not read a story, of late, in the news-
papers, about some excellent women in a little town in
Connecticut whose pet heifers were taken by force and
sold because they refused to pay the large taxes levied
upon them by their townsmen, they being the largest
holders of property in the town? That circumstance
could not have happened in barbarous Russia ; there,
the owner of property has a right to say how it shall
be used.

"*Why do you ask me about our government?' I
said to the Russian girls. * Are you interested in
questions of government?' They replied, * All Rus-
sian women are interested in questions of that sort.'
How many American women are interested in ques-
tions concerning government?

" These young girls knew exactly what questions to
ask about Vassar College, — the course of study, the
diploma, the number of graduates, etc. The eldest

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 215

said : * We are at once excited when we hear of women
studying; we have longed for opportunities to study
all our lives. Our father was the engineer of the first
Russian railroad, and he spent two years in America.'
" I confess to a feeling of mortification when one of
these girls asked me, * Did you ever read the transla-
tion of a Russian book ? ' and I was obliged to answer

* No.' This girl had read American books in the origi-
nal. They were talking Russian, French, German, and
English, and yet mourning over their need of educa-
tion ; and in general education, especially in that of
women, I think we must be in advance of them.

" One of these sisters, forgetting my ignorance, said
something to me in Russian. The other laughed.
*What did she say?' I asked. The eldest replied,

* She asked you to take her back with you, and educate
her.' * But,' I said, *you read and speak your lan-
guages — the learning of the world is open to you —
found your own college ! ' And the young girl leaned
back on the cushions, drew her mantle around her, and
said, * We have not the energy of the American girl ! '

" The energy of the American girl ! The rich inher-
itance which has come down to her from men and
women who sought, in the New World, a better and
higher life.

" When the Anierican girl carries her energy into the
great questions of humanity, into the practical problems
of life ; when she takes home to her heart the interests
of education, of government, and of religion, what may
we not hope for our country !

London, 1873. ** It was the 26th of August, and I had

2l6 MARIA MITCHELL

no hope that Miss Cobbe could be at her town residence,
but I felt bound to deliver Mrs. Howe's letter, and I wished
to give her a Vassar pamphlet ; so I took a cab and drove ;
it was at an enormous distance from my lodging — she
told me it was six miles. I was as much surprised as
delighted when the girl said she was at home, for the
house had painters in it, the carpets were up, and every-
thing looked uninhabitable. The girl came back, after
taking my card, and asked me if I would go into the
studio, and so took me through a pretty garden into a
small building of two rooms, the outer one filled with
pictures and books. I had never heard that Miss Cobbe
was an artist, and so I looked around, and was afraid
that I had got the wrong Miss Cobbe. But as I glanced
at the table I saw the * Contemporary Review,* and I
took up the first article and read it — by Herbert
Spencer. I had become somewhat interested in a
pretty severe criticism of the modes of reasoning of
mathematical men, and had perceived that he said the
problems of concrete sciences were harder than any of
the physical sciences (which I admitted was all true),
when a very white dog came bounding in upon me, and
I dropped the book, knowing that the dog's mistress
must be coming, — and Miss Cobbe entered. She looked
just as I expected, but even larger; but then her head
is magnificent because so large. She was very cordial
at once, and told me that Miss Davies had told her I was
in London. She said the studio was that of her friend.
I could not refrain from thanking her for her books, and
telling her how much we valued them in America, and
how much good I believed they had done. She colored

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 21/

a very little, and said, * Nothing could be more grati-
fying to me/

" I had heard that she was not a women^s rights
woman, and she said, * Who could have told you that?
I am remarkably so. I write suffrage articles contin-
ually — I sign petitions.'

** I was delighted to find that she had been an inti-
mate friend of Mrs. Somerville ; had corresponded with
her for years, and had a letter from her after she was
ninety-two years of age, when she was reading Qua-
ternions for amusement. She said that Mrs. Somerville
would probably have called herself a Unitarian, but
that really she was a Theist, and that it came out more
in her later life. She said she was correcting proof of
the Life by the daughters ; that the Life was intensely
interesting; that Mrs. Somerville mourned all her life
that she had not had the advantages of education.

** I asked her how I could get a photograph of Mrs.
Somerville, and she said they could not be bought.
She told me, without any hint from me, that she would
give Vassar College a plaster cast of the bust of Mrs.
Somerville.^ She said, as women grew older, if they
lived independent lives, they were pretty sure to be
'women's rights women.' She said the clergy — the
broadest, who were in harmony with her — were very
courteous, and that since she had grown old (she's
about forty-five) all men were more tolerant of her and
forgot the difference of sex.

" I felt drawn to her when she was most serious. I
told her I had suffered much from doubt, and asked her

^ This bust always stood in Miss Mitchell's parlor at the observatory.

2l8 MARIA MITCHELL

if she had ; and she said yes, when she was young ; but
that she had had, in her life, rare intervals when she
believed she held communion with God, and on those
rare periods she had rested in the long intermissions.
She laughed, and the tears came to her eyes, all
together ; she was quicky and all-alive, and so courteous.
When she gave me a book she said, * May I write your
whole name? and may I say '' from your friend "? '

" Then she hurried on her bonnet, and walked to the
station with me ; and her round face, with the blond hair
and the light-blue eyes, seemed to me to become beau-
tiful as she talked.

** In Edinburgh I asked for a photograph of Mary
Somerville, and the young man behind the counter
replied, * I don't know who it is.*

** In London I asked at a bookstore, which the
Murrays recommended, fcr a photograph of Mrs.
Somerville and of Sir Geoi ^e Airy, and the man said
if they could be had in Lc ndon he would get them ;
and then he asked, 'Are thty English?' and I informed
him that Sir George Airy wds the astronomer royal !

" ' The Glasgow College f )r Girls.* Seeing a sign of
this sort, I rang the door-bc 1 of the house to which it
was attached, entered, and was told the lady was at
home. As I waited for her, I took up the * Prospectus,'
and it was enough, — * musi . dancing, drawing, needle-
work, and English* were the rominent features, and the
pupils were children. All \ :ll enough, — but why call
it a college ?

"When the lady superin iident came in, I told her

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR 219

that I had supposed it was for more advanced students,
and she said, * Oh, it is for girls up to twenty; one sup-
poses a girl is finished by twenty.'

" I asked, as modestly as I could, * Have you any
pupils in Latin and mathematics?' and she said, 'No,
it's for girls, you know. Dr. M. hopes we shall have
some mathematics next year.' ' And,' I asked, * some
Latin ? ' * Yes, Dr. M. hopes we shall have some Latin ;.
but I confess I believe Latin and mathematics all bosh ;;
give them modern languages and accomplishments. 1
suppose your school is for professional women.'

" I told her no ; that the daughters of our wealthiest
people demand learning ; that it would scarcely be con*
sidered * good society ' when the women had neither
Latin nor mathematics.

** * Oh, well,* she said, 'they get married here so
soon.'

" When I asked her if they had lady teachers, she
said ' Oh, no [as if that would ruin the institution] ;
nothing but first-class masters.'

" It was clear that the women taught the needle-
work."

220 MARIA MITCHELL

CHAPTER XI

IRAFESS — SCIENCE [1874] — THE DENVER ECLIPSE [1878] —

COLOiRS OF STARS

** The dissemination of information in regard to sci-
<ence and to scientific investigations relieves the scientist
from the small annoyances of extreme ignorance.

^* No one to-day will expect* to receive a letter such
as reached Sir John Herschel some years ago, asking
for the writer's horoscope to be cast ; or such as he
received at another time, which asked, Shall I marry?
and Have I seen her ?

" Nor can it be long, if the whole population is some-
what -edocitted, that I shall be likely to receive, as I have
done, .applications for information as to the recovery of
stolen goods, or to tell fortunes.

** When crossing the Atlantic, an Irish woman came
to me and asked me if I told fortunes; and when I
replied in the negative, she asked me if I were not an
astronomer. I admitted that I made efforts in that
direction. She then asked me what I could tell, if not
fortunes. I told her that I could tell when the moon
would rise, when the sun would rise, etc. She said,
' Oh,' in a tone which plainly said, * Is that all? '

** Only a few winters since, during a very mild winter,
a young lad who was driving a team called out to me
on the street, and said he had a question to ask me.

SCIENCE 221

" I stopped ; and he asked, ' Shall we lose our ice-
crop this winter?'

'* It was January, and it was New England. It took
very little learning and no alchemy to foretell that the
month of February and the neighborhood of Boston
would give ice enough; and I told him that the ice-
crop would be abundant; but I was honest enough to
explain to him that my outlook into the future was no
better than his.

** One of the unfavorable results of the attempt to
popularize science is this : the reader of popular scien-
tific books is very likely to think that he understands
the science itself, when he merely understands what
some writer says about science.

" Take, for example, the method of determining the
distance of the moon from the earth — one of the easiest
problems in physical astronomy. The method can be
told in a few sentences ; yet it took a hundred years^
to determine it with any degree of accuracy — and a
hundred years, not of the average work of mankind in
science, but a hundred years during which able minds
were bent to the problem.

" Still, with all the school-masters, and all the teach-
ing, and all the books, the ignorance of the unscientific
world is enormous ; they are ignorant both ways — they
underrate the scientific people and they overrate them.
There is, on the one hand, the Irish woman who is
disappointed because you cannot tell fortunes, and, on
the other hand, the cultivated woman who supposes
that you must know all science.

'* I have a friend who wonders that I do not take

222 MARIA MITCHELL

my astronomical clock to pieces. She supposes that
because I am an astronomer, I must be able to be a
clock-maker, while I do not handle a tool if I can help
it! She did not expect to take her piano to pieces
because she was musical! She was as careful not to
tinker it as I was not to tinker the clock, which only
an expert in clock-making was prepared to handle.

"... Only a few weeks since I received a letter
from a lady who wished to come to make me a visit, and
to 'scan the heavens,' as she termed it. Now, just as
she wrote, the clock, which I was careful not to meddle
with, had been rapidly gaining time, and I was standing
before it, watching it from hour to hour, and slightly
changing its rate by dropping small weights upon its
pendulum. Time is so important an element with the
astronomer, that all else is subordinate to it.

** Then, too, the uneducated assume the unvarying
exactness of mathematical results; while, in reality,
mathematical results are often only approximations.
We say the sun is 9i,ooo,cxx) miles from the earth, plus
or minus a probable error ; that is, we are right, prob-
ably, within, say, I(X),CXX) miles; or, the sun is 91,000,-
000 minus 100,000 miles, or it is 91 ,000,000 plus 100.000
miles off; and this probable error is only a probability.

" If we make one more observation it cannot agree
with any one of our determinations, and it changes our
probable error.

" This ignorance of the masses leads to a misconcep-
tion in two ways ; the little that a scientist can do, they
do not understand, — they suppose him to be godlike
in his capacity, and they do not see results; they

SCIENCE 223

overrate him and they underrate him — they underrate
his work.

"There is no observatory in this land, nor in any
land, probably, of which the question is not asked,
* Are they doing anything? Why don*t we hear from
them? They should make discoveries, they should
publish.'

** The one observation made at Greenwich on the
planet Neptune was not published until after a century
or more — it was recorded as a star. The observation
had to wait a hundred years, about, before the time had
come when that evening's work should bear fruit ; but
it was good, faithful work, and its time came.

" Kepler was years in passing from one of his laws
to another, while the school-boy, to-day, rattles off the
three as if they were born of one breath.

** The scientist should be free to pursue his investiga-
tions. He cannot be a scientist and a school-master.
If he pursues his science in all his intervals from his
class-work, his classes suffer on account of his engross-
ments; if he devotes himself to his students, science
suffers ; and yet we all go on, year after year, trying
to work the two fields together, and they need different
culture and different implements.

** 1 878. In the eclipse of this year, the dark shadow fell
first on the United States thirty-eight degrees west of
Washington, and moved towards the south-east, a circle
of darkness one hundred and sixteen miles in diameter ;
circle overlapping circle of darkness until it could be
mapped down like a belt.

** The mapping of the dark shadow, with its limita-

224 MARIA MITCHELL

tions of one hundred and sixteen miles, lay across the
country from Montana, through Colorado, northern and
eastern Texas, and entered the Gulf of Mexico between
Galveston and New Orleans. This was the region of
total eclipse. Looking along this dark strip on the
map, each astronomer selected his bit of darkness on
which to locate the light of science.

"But for the distance from the large cities of the
country, Colorado seemed to be a most favorable part
of the shadow; it was little subject to storms, and
reputed to be enjoyable in climate and abundant in
hospitality.

" My party chose Denver, Col. I had a friend who
lived in Denver, and she was visiting me. I sought
her at once, and with fear and trembling asked, * Have
you a bit of land behind your house in Denver where I
could put up a small telescope ? ' ' Six hundred miles,*
was the laconic reply !

" I felt that the hospitality of the Rocky mountains
was at my feet. Space and time are so unconnected !
For an observation which would last two minutes forty
seconds, I was offered six hundred miles, after a journey
of thousands.

" A journey from Boston to Denver makes one hope-
ful for the future of our country. We had hour after
hour and day after day of railroad travel, over level,
unbroken land on which cattle fed unprotected, sum-
mer and winter, and which seemed to implore the
traveller to stay and to accept its richness. It must be
centuries before the now unpeopled land of western
Kansas and Colorado can be crowded.

THE DENVER ECLIPSE 225

** We started from Boston a party of two ; at Cincin-
nati a third joined us ; at Kansas City we came upon a
fourth who was ready to fall into our ranks, and at
Denver two more awaited us ; so we were a party of
six — * All good women and true/

"All along the road it had been evident that the
country was roused to a knowledge of the coming
eclipse ; we overheard remarks about it ; small telescopes
travelled with us, and our landlord at Kansas City,
when I asked him to take care of a chronometer, said
he had taken care of fifty of them in the previous fort-
night. Our party had three telescopes and one chro-
nometer.

** We had travelled so comfortably all along the Santa
Fe road, from Kansas City to Pueblo, that we had for-
gotten the possibility of other railroad annoyances than
those of heat and dust until we reached Pueblo. At
Pueblo all seemed to change. We left the Santa Fe
road and entered upon that of the Rio Grande.

" Which road was to blame, it is not for me to say,
but there was trouble at once about our * round-trip
ticket.' That settled, we supposed all was right.

** In sending out telescopes so far as from Boston
to Denver, I had carefully taken out the glasses, and
packed them in my trunks. I carried the chronometer
in my hand,

** It was only five hours' travel from Pueblo to Den-
ver, and we went on to that city. The trunks, for some
unexplained reason, or for no reason at all, chose to
remain at Pueblo.

** One telescope-tube reached Denver when we did ;

226 MARIA MITCHELL

but a telescope-tube is of no value without glasses.
We learned that there was a war between the two rail-
roads which unite at Pueblo, and war, no matter where
or when it occurs, means ignorance and stupidity.

"The unit of measure of value which the railroad
man believes in is entirely different from that in which
the scientist rests his faith.

"A war between two railroads seemed very small
compared with two minutes forty seconds of observa-
tion of a total eclipse. One was terrestrial, the other
cosmic.

" It was Wednesday when we reached Denver. The
eclipse was to occur the following Monday.

'* We haunted the telegraph-rooms, and sent implor-
ing messages. We placed ourselves at the station, and
watched the trains as they tossed out their freight ; we
listened to every express-wagon which passed our door
without stopping, and just as we were tr>'ing to find if
a telescope could be hired or bought in Denver, the
glasses arrived.

** It was now Friday ; we must put up tents and tele-
scopes, and test the glasses.

" It rained hard on Friday — nothing could be done.
It rained harder on Saturday. It rained hardest of all
on Sunday, and hail mingled with the rain. But Mon-
day morning was clear and bright. It was strange
enough to find that we might camp anywhere around
Denver. Our hostess suggested to us to place our-
selves on ' McCullough's Addition.' In New York or
Boston, if I were about to camp on private grounds I
should certainly ask permission. In the far West you

THE DENVER ECLIPSE 227

choose your spot of ground, you dig post-holes and
you pitch tents, and you set up telescopes and inhabit
the land; and then the owner of the land comes to
you, and asks if he may not put up a fence for you,
to keep off intruders, and the nearest residents come
to you and offer aid of any kind.

" Our camping-place was near the house occupied
by sisters of charity, and the black-robed, sweet- faced
women came out to offer us the refreshing cup of tea
and the new-made bread.

" All that we needed was * space,' and of that there
was plenty.

** Our tents being up and the telescopes mounted,
we had time to look around at the view. The space
had the unlimitedness that we usually connect with sea
and sky. Our tents were on the slope of a hill, at
the foot of which we were about six thousand feet
above the sea. The plain was three times as high
as the hills of the Hudson-river region, and there arose
on the south, almost from west to east, the peaks upon
peaks of the Rocky mountains. One needs to live
upon such a plateau for weeks, to take in the grandeur
of the panorama.

" It is always difficult to teach the man of the people
that natural phenomena belong as much to him as to
scientific people. Camping parties who put up tele-
scopes are always supposed to be corporations with
particular privileges, and curious lookers-on gather
around, and try to enter what they consider a charmed
circle. We were remarkably free from specialists of
this kind. Camping on the south-west slope of the

228 MARIA MITCHELL

hill, we were hidden on the north and east, and another
party which chose the brow of the hill was much more
attractive to the crowd. Our good serving-man was
told to send away the few strollers who approached ;
even our friends from the city were asked to remove
beyond the reach of voice.

" There is always some one to be found in every
gathering who will not submit to law. At the time of
the total eclipse in Iowa, in 1 869, there passed in and
out among our telescopes and observers an unknown,
closely veiled woman. The remembrance of that occa-
sion never comes to my mind without the accompani-
ment of a fluttering green veil.

" This time it was a man. How he came among us
and why he remained, no one can say. Each one sup-
posed that the others knew, and that there was good
reason for his presence. If I was under the tent,
wiping glasses, he stood beside me; if the photog-
rapher wished to make a picture of the party, this man
came to the front; and when I asked the servant to
send off the half-vagrant boys and girls who stood
gazing at us, this man came up and said to me in a
confidential tone, * They do not understand the sacred-
ness of the occasion, and the fineness of the condi-
tions.' There was something regal in his audacity, but
he was none the less a tramp.

" Persons who observe an eclipse of the sun always
try to do the impossible. They seem to consider it a
solemn duty to see the first contact of sun and moon.
The moon, when seen in the daytime, looks like a small
faint cloud ; as it approaches the sun it becomes

THE DENVER ECLIPSE 229

wholly unseen ; and an observer tries to see when
this unseen object touches the glowing disc of the
sun.

** When we look at any other object than the sun, we
stimulate our vision. A good observer will remain in
the dark for a short time before he makes a delicate
observation on a faint star, and will then throw a cap
over his head to keep out strong lights.

** When we look at the sun, we at once try to deaden
its light. We protect our eyes by dark glasses — the
less of sunlight we can get the better. We calculate
exactly at what point the moon will touch the sun, and
we watch that point only. The exact second by the
chronometer when the figure of the moon touches that
of the sun, is always noted. It is not only valuable for
the determination of longitude, but it is a check on our
knowledge of the moon's motions. Therefore, we try
for the impossible.

" One of our party, a young lady from California, was
placed at the chronometer. She was to count aloud
the seconds, to which the three others were to listen.
Two others, one a young woman from Missouri, who
brought with her a fine telescope, and another from
Ohio, besides myself, stood at the three telescopes. A
fourth, from Illinois, was stationed to watch general
effects, and one special artist, pencil in hand, to sketch
views.

** Absolute silence was imposed upon the whole party
a few minutes before each phenomenon.

" Of course we began full a minute too soon, and the
constrained position was irksome enough, for even time

230 MARIA MITCHELL

is relative, and the minute of suspense is longer than
the hour of satisfaction.^

"The moon, so white in the sky, becomes densely
black when it is closely ranging with the sun, and it
shows itself as a black notch on the burning disc when
the eclipse begins.

** Each observer made her record in silence, and then
we turned and faced one another, with record in hand
— we differed more than a second; it was a large
difference.

*' Between first contact and totality there was more
than an hour, and we had little to do but look at the
beautiful scenery and watch the slow motion of a few
clouds, on a height which was cloud-land to dwellers
by the sea.

** Our photographer begged us to keep our positions
while he made a picture of us. The only value to the
picture is the record that it preserves of the parallelism
of the three telescopes. You would say it was stiff
and unnatural, did you not know that it was the ordering
of Nature herself — they all point to the centre of the
solar system.

** As totality approached, all again took their posi-
tions. The corona, which is the * glory ' seen around
the sun, was visible at least thirteen minutes before total-
ity ; each of the party took a look at this, and then all
was silent, only the count, on and on, of the young

*As the computed time "for the first contact drew near, the breath of the
counter grew short, and the seconds were almost gasped and threatened to
become inaudible, when Miss Mitchell, without moving her eye from the tube
of the telescope, took up the counting, and continued until the young lady
recovered herself, which she did immediately.

THE DENVER ECLIPSE 23 1

woman at the chronometer. When totality came, even
that ceased.

" How still it was !

"As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona
burst out all around the sun, so intensely bright near the
sun that the eye could scarcely bear it ; extending less
dazzlingly bright around the sun for the space of about
half the sun's diameter, and in some directions sending
off streamers for millions of miles.

** It was now quick work. Each observer at the
telescopes gave a furtive glance at the un-sunlike sun,
moved the dark eye-piece from the instrument, replaced
it by a more powerful white glass, and prepared to see
all that could be seen in two minutes forty seconds.
They must note the shape of the corona, its color, its
seeming substance, and they must look all around the
sun for the 'interior planet'

** There was certainly not the beauty of the eclipse
of 1869. Then immense radiations shot out in all
directions, and threw themselves over half the sky. In
1869, the rosy prominences were so many, so brilliant,
so fantastic, so weirdly changing, that the eye must
follow them; now, scarcely a protuberance of color,
only a roseate light around the sun as the totality ended.
But if streamers and prominences were absent, the
corona itself was a great glory. Our special artist, who
made the sketch for my party, could not bear the light.

" When the two minutes forty seconds were over, each
observer left her instrument, turned in silence from the
sun, and wrote down brief notes. Happily, some one
broke through all rules of order, and shouted out, * The

232 MARIA MITCHELL

shadow ! the shadow ! ' And looking toward the south-
east we saw the black band of shadow moving from us,
a hundred and sixty miles over the plain, and toward
the Indian Territory. It was not the flitting of the
closer shadow over the hill and dale : it was a picture
which the sun threw at our feet of the dignified march
of the moon in its orbit.

" And now we looked around. What a strange orange
light there was in the north-east ! what a spectral hue to
the whole landscape ! Was it really the same old earth,
and not another planet?

" Great is the self-denial of those who follow science.
They who look through telescopes at the time of a total
eclipse are martyrs; they severely deny themselves.
The persons who can say that they have seen a total
eclipse of the sun are those who rely upon their eyes.
My aids, who touched no glasses, had a season of rare
enjoyment. They saw Mercury, with its gleam of white
light, and Mars, with its ruddy glow; they saw Regulus
come out of the darkening blue on one side of the sun,
Venus shimmer and Procyon twinkle near the horizon,
and Arcturus shine down from the zenith.

" We saw the giant shadow as it left us and passed
over the lands of the untutored Indian ; tkey saw it as it
approached from the distant west, as it fell upon the
peaks of the mountain-tops, and, in the impressive still-
ness, moved directly for our camping-ground.

" The savage, to whom it is the frowning of the Great
Spirit, is awe-struck and alarmed ; the scholar, to whom
it is a token of the inviolability of Maw, is serious and
reverent.

COLORS OF STARS 233

"There is a dialogue in some of the old school-
readers, and perhaps in some of the new, between a
tutor and his two pupils who had been out for a walk.
One pupil complained that the way was long, the road
was dusty, and the scenery uninteresting; the other
was full of delight at the beauties he had found in the
same walk. One had walked with his eyes intellectu-
ally closed; the other had opened his eyes wide to
all the charms of nature. In some respects we are all,
at different times, like each of these boys : we shut our
eyes to the enjoyments of nature, or we open them.
But we are capable of improving ourselves, even in the
use of our eyes — we see most when we are most de-
termined to see. The will has a wonderful effect upon
the perceptive faculties. When we first look up at the
myriads of stars seen in a moonless evening, all is
confusion to us; we admire their brilliancy, but we
scarcely recognize their grouping. We do not feel
the need of knowing much about them.

"A traveller, lost on a desert plain, feels that the
recognition of one star, the Pole star, is of itself a great
acquisition; and all persons who, like mariners and
soldiers, are left much with the companionship of the
stars, only learn to know the prominent clusters, even
if they do not know the names given to them in books.

" The daily wants of the body do not require that we
should say

** * Give me the ways of wandering stars to know
The depths of heaven above and earth below.'

But we have a hunger of the mind which asks for

234 MAR J A MITCHELL

knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the
more is our desire ; the more we see, the more are we
capable of seeing.

"Besides learning to see, there is another art to be
learned, — not to see what is not.

** If we read in to-day's paper that a brilliant comet
was seen last night in New York, we are very likely to
see it to-night in Boston; for we take every long,
fleecy cloud for a splendid comet.

" When the comet of 1680 was expected, a few years
ago, to reappear, some young men in Cambridge told
Professor Bond that they had seen it ; but Professor
Bond did not see it. Continually are amateurs in
astrononiy sending notes of new discoveries to Bond,
or some other astronomers, which are no discoveries
at all !

** Astronomers have long supposed the existence of a
planet inferior to Mercury; and M. Leverrier has, by
mathematical calculation, demonstrated that such a
planet exists. He founded his calculations upon the
supposed discovery of M. Lesbarcault, who declares
that it crossed the sun's disc, and that he saw it and
made drawings. The internal evidence, from the man's
account, is that he was an honest enthusiast. I have
no doubt that he followed the path of a solar spot,
and as the sun turned on its axis he mistook the
motion for that of the dark spot ; or perhaps the spot
changed and became extinct, and another spot closely
resembling it broke out and he was deceived ; his
wishes all the time being * father to the thought.'

'* The eye is as teachable as the hand. Every one

COLORS OF STARS 235

knows the most prominent constellations, — the Pleiades,
the Great Bf ar, and Orion. Many persons can draw the
figures made by the most brilliant stars in these con-
stellations, and very many young people look for the
* lost Pleiad/ But common observers know these stars,
only as bright objects ; they do not perceive that one^
star differs from another in glory ; much less do they
perceive that they shine with differently colored rays.

" Those who know Sirius and Betel do not at once
perceive that one shines with a brilliant whit^ Ujjht. and]
the other burns with a glowing red, as different ini tiiieiiv
brilliancy as the precious stones on a lapidftlBj'^ t^lfti,
perhaps for the same reason. And so th^re^ i& ani endr-
less variety of tints of paler colors.

" We may turn our gaze as we turn a kaleidoscope,
and the changes are infinitely more startling, the com-
binations infinitely more beautiful ; no flower garden
presents such a variety and such delicacy of shades.

"But beautiful as this variety is, it is difficult to
measure it; it has a phantom-like intangibility — we
seem not to be able to bring it under the laws of
science.

" We call the stars garnet and sapphire ; but these
are, at best, vague terms. Our language has not terms
enough to signify the different delicate shades; our
factories have not the stuff whose hues might make a
chromatic scale for them.

" In this dilemma, we might make a scale of colors
from the stars themselves. We might put at the head
of the scale of crimson stars the one known as Hind's,
which is four degrees west of Rigel ; we might make

236 MARIA MITCHELL

a scale of orange stars, beginning with Betel as orange
red ; then we should have

Betelgeuze,

Aldebaran,

/8 Ursae Minoris,

Altair and a Canis,

a Lyrae,

the list gradually growing paler and paler, until we

come to a Lyrae, which might be the leader of a host

of pale yellow stars, gradually fading off into white.

'* Most of the stars seen with the naked eye are vari-
eties of red, orange, and yellow. The reds, when seen
with a glass, reach to violet or dark purple. With a
glass, there come out other colors: very decided
greens, very delicate blues, browns, grays, and white.
If these colors are almost intangible at best, they are
rendered more so by the variations of the atmosphere,
of the eye, and of the glass. But after these are all
accounted for, there is still a real difference. Two
stars of the class known as double stars, that is, so
little separated that considerable optical power is nec-
essary to divide them, show these different tints very
nicely in the same field of the telescope.

**Then there comes in the chance that the colors
are complementary ; that the eye, fatigued by a brilliant
red in the principal star, gives to the companion the
color which would make up white light. This happens
sometimes ; but beyond this there are innumerable cases
of finely contrasted colors which are not complementary,
but which show a real difference of light in the stars ;
resulting, perhaps, from distance, — for some colors

COLORS OF STARS 237

travel farther than others, and all colors differ in their
order of march, — perhaps from chemical differences.

" Single blue or green stars are never seen ; they are
always given as the smaller companion of a pair.

" Out of several hundred observed by Mr. Bishop,
forty-five have small companions of a bluish, or green-
ish, or purplish color. Almost all of these are stars of
the eighth to tenth magnitude; only once are both
seen blue, and only in one case is the large one blue.
In almost every case the large star is yellow. The
color most prevailing is yellow; but the varieties of
yellow are very great.

" We may assume, then, that the blue stars are faint
ones, and probably distant ones. But as not all faint
stars or distant ones are blue, it shows that there is a
real difference. In the star called 35 Piscium, the small
star shows a peculiar snuffy-brown tinge.

*f Of two stars in the constellation Ursa Minoris, not
double stars, one is orange and the other is green, both
very vivid in color.

*' From age to age the colors of some prominent stars
have certainly changed. This would seem more likely
to be from change of place than of physical constitution.

" Nothing comes out more clearly in astronomical
observations than the immense activity of the universe.
* All change, no loss, 'tis revolution all.'

" Observations of this kind are peculiarly adapted to
women. Indeed, all astronomical observing seems to
be so fitted. The training of a girl fits her for delicate
work. The touch of her fingers upon the delicate
screws of an astronomical instrument might become

238 MARIA MITCHELL

wonderfully accurate in results; a woman's eyes are
trained to nicety of color. The eye that directs a needle
in the delicate meshes of embroidery will equally well
bisect a star with the spider web of the micrometer.
Routine observations, too, dull as they are, are less
dull than the endless repetition of the same pattern in
crochet-work.

" Professor Chauvenet enumerates among ' accidental
errors in observing,' those arising from imperfections
in the senses, as * the imperfection of the eye in measur-
ing small spaces ; of the ear, in estimating small inter-
vals of time ; of the touch, in the delicate handling of an
instrument.'

" A girl's eye is trained from early childhood to be
keen. The first stitches of the sewing-work of a little
child are about as good as those of the mature man.
The taking of small stitches, involving minute and
equable measurements of space, is a part of every girl's
training ; she becomes skilled, before she is aware of it,
in one of the nicest peculiarities of astronomical obser-
vation.

" The ear of a child is less trained, except in the case
of a musical education ; but the touch is a delicate sense
given in exquisite degree to a girl, and her training
comes in to its aid. She threads a needle almost as
soon as she speaks ; she touches threads as delicate as
the spider-web of a micrometer.

" Then comes in the girl's habit of patient and quiet
work, peculiarly fitted to routine observations. The
girl who can stitch from morning to night would find
two or three hours in the observatory a relief."

REUGIOUS BEUEFS 239

CHAPTER XII

REUGIOUS BEUEFS — COMMENTS ON SERMONS — CONCORD SCHOOL
WHITTIER COOKING SCHOOLS ANECDOTES

Partly in consequence of her Quaker training, and
partly from her own indifference towards creeds and
sects, Miss Mitchell was entirely ignorant of the pecu-
liar phrases and customs used by rigid sectarians ; so
that she was apt to open her eyes in astonishment at
some of the remarks and sectarian prejudices which
she met after her settlement at Vassar College. She
was a good learner, however, and after a while knew
how to receive in silence that which she did not under-
stand.

" Miss Mitchell," asked one good missionary, " what
is your favorite position in prayer?" "Flat upon my
back ! " the answer came, swift as lightning.

In 1854 she wrote in her diary:

** There is a God, and he is good, I say to myself.
I try to increase my trust in this, my only article of
creed."

Miss Mitchell never joined any church, but for years
before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian
church, and her sympathies, as long as she lived, were
with that denomination, especially with the more liber-
ally inclined portion. There were always a few of the
teachers and some of the students who sympathized

240 MARIA MITCHELL

with her in her views; but she usually attended the
college services on Sunday.

President Taylor, of Vassar College, in his remarks
at her funeral, stated that all her life Professor Mitchell
had been seeking the truth, — that she was not willing
to accept any statement without studying into the
matter herself, — "And," he added, "I think she has
found the truth she was seeking/*

Miss Mitchell never obtruded her views upon others,
nor did she oppose their views. She bore in silence
what she could not believe, but always insisted upon
the right of private judgment.

Miss W., a teacher at Vassar, was fretting at being
obliged to attend chapel exercises twice a day when
she needed the time for rest and recreation, and
applied to Miss Mitchell for help in getting away from
it. After some talk Miss Mitchell said : *' Oh, well, do
as / do — sit back folding your arms, and think of
something pleasant ! "

"Sunday, Dec. i8, 1866. We heard two sermons:
the first in the afternoon, by Rev. Mr. A., Baptist, the
second in the evening, by Rev. Mr. B., Congregationalist.

" Rev. Mr. A. took a text from Deuteronomy, about

* Moses ; ' Rev. Mr. B. took a text from Exodus, about

* Moses;' and I am told that the sermon on the preced-
ing Sunday was about Moses.

" It seems to me strange that since we have the
history of Christ in the New Testament, people con-
tinue to preach about Moses.

" Rev. Mr. A. was a man. of about forty years of age.
He chanted rather than read a hymn. He chanted a

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 24 1

sermon. His description of the journey of Moses
towards Canaan had some interesting points, but his
manner was affected ; he cried, or pretended to cry, at
the pathetic points. I hope he really cried, for a weak-
ness is better than an affectation of weakness. He
said, * The unbeliever is already condemned.' It seems
to me that if anything would make me an infidel, it
would be the threats lavished against unbelief.

" Mr. B. is a self-made man, the son of a blacksmith.
He brought the anvil, the hammer, and bellows into the
pulpit, and he pounded and blew, for he was in ear-
nest. I felt the more respect for him because he was in
earnest. But when he snapped his fingers and said,
' I don't care that for the religion of a man which does
not begin with prayer,' I was provoked at his forget-
fulness of the character of his audience.

" 1867. I am more and more disgusted with the
preaching that I hear ! . . . Why cannot a man act
himself, be himself, and think for himself ? It seems to
me that naturalness alone is power; that a borrowed
word is weaker than our own weakness, however small
we may be. If I reach a girl's heart or head, I know I
must reach it through my own, and not from bigger
hearts and heads than mine.

" March, 1873. There was something so genuine and
so sincere in George Macdonald that he took those of
us who were emotional completely — not by storm
so much as by gentle breezes. . . . What he said
wasn't profound except as it reached the depths of the
heart. . . . He gave us such broad theological
lessons ! In his sermon he said, * Don't trouble your-

242 MARIA MITCHELL

self about what you believey but do the will of God.'
His consciousness of the existence of God and of his
immediate supervision was felt every minute by those who
listened. . . .

" He stayed several days at the college, and the girls
will never get over the good effects of those three days
— the cheerier views of life and death.

". . . Rev. Dr. Peabody preached for us yesterday,
and was lovely. Every one was charmed in spite of his
old-fashioned ways. His voice is very bad, but it was
such a simple, common-sense discourse ! Mr. Vassar
said if that was Unitarianism, it was just the right thing.

"Aug. 29, 1875. Went to a Baptist church, and
heard Rev. Mr. F, ' Christ the way, the only way.'
The sermon was wholly without logic, and yet he said,
near its close, that those who had followed him must
be convinced that this was true. He said a traveller
whom he met on the cars admitted that we all desired
heaven, but believed that there were as many ways to
it as to Boston. Mr. F. said that God had prepared
but one way, just as the government in those countries
of the Old World whose cities were upon almost inac-
cessible pinnacles had prepared one way of approach.
(It occurred to me that if those governments possessed
godlike powers, they would have made a great many
ways.)

** Mr. F. was very severe upon those who expect to
be saved by their own deserts. He said, * You tender
a farthing, when you owe a million.' I could not see
what they owed at all ! At this point he might well have
given some attention to * good works ; ' and if he must

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 243

mention * debt/ he might well remind them that they sat
in an unpaid-for church !

"It was plain that he relied upon his anecdotes for
the hold upon his audience, and the anecdotes were
attached to the main discourse by a very slender thread
of connection. I felt really sad to know that not a
listener would lead a better life for that sermon — no man
or woman went out cheered, or comforted, or stimulated.

" On the whole, it is strange that people who go to
church are no worse than they are !

"Sept. 26, 1880. A clergyman said, in his sermon,
' I do not say with the Frenchman, if there were no God
it would be well to invent one, but I say, if there were
no future state of rewards and punishments, it would be
better to believe in one.* Did he mean to say, * Better
to believe a lie * ?

" March 27, 1881. Dr. Lyman Abbott preached. I
was surprised to find how liberal Congregational preach-
ing had become, for he said he hoped and expected to
see women at the bar and in the pulpit, although he
believed they would always be exceptional cases. He
preached mainly on the motherhood of God, and his
whole sermon was a tribute to womanhood. ... I
rejoice at the ideal womanhood of purity which he put
before the girls. I wish some one would preach purity
to young men.

"July I, 1883. I went to hear Rev. Mr. at

the Universalist church. He enumerated some of the
dangers that threaten us : one was * The doctrines of
scientists,' and he named Tyndale, Huxley, and Spencer.
I was most surprised at his fear of these men. Can the

244 MARIA MITCHELL

study of truth do harm ? Does not every true scientist
seek only to know the truth ? And in our deep igno-
rance of what is truth, shall we dread the search for it?

** I hold the simple student of nature in holy rever-
ence; and while there live sensualists, despots, and
men who are wholly self-seeWng, I cannot bear to
have these sincere workers held up in the least degree
to reproach. And let us have truth, even if the truth
be the awful denial. of the good God. We must face
the light and not bury our heads in the earth. I am
hopeful that scientific investigation, pushed on and on,
will reveal new ways in which God works, and bring to
us deeper revelations of the wholly unknown.

" The physical and the spiritual seem to be, at pres-
ent, separated by an impassable gulf; but at any
moment that gulf may be overleaped — possibly a new
revelation may come. , . .

"April, 1878. I called on Professor Henry at the
Smithsonian Institute. He must be in his eightieth
year ; he has been ill and seems feeble, but he is still
the majestic old man, unbent in figure and undimmed
in eye.

** I always remember, when I see him, the remark of
Dorothy Dix, * He is the truest man that ever lived.'

" We were left alone for a little while, and he intro-
duced the subject of his nearness to death. • He said,
*The National Academy has raised $40,000, the interest
of which is for myself and family as long as any of us
live [he has daughters only], and in view of my death
it is a great comfort to me.' I ventured to ask him if
he feared death at all. He said, 'Not in the least; I

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, 245

have thought of it a great deal, and have come to feel
it a friend. I cherish the belief in immortality; I
have suffered much, at times, in regard to that matter/
Scientifically considered, only, he thought the proba-
bility was on the side of continued existence, as we
must believe that spirit existed independent of matter.

" He went to a desk and pulled out from a drawer
an old copy of ' Gregory's Astronomy,' and said, * That
book changed my whole life — I read it when I was
sixteen years old ; I had read, previously, works of the
imagination only, and at sixteen, being ill in bed, that
book was near me ; I read it, and determined to study
science.* I asked him if a life of science was a good
life, and he said that he felt that it was so.

" . . . When I was travelling with Miss S., who
was near-sighted and kept her eyes constantly half-
shut, it seemed to me that every other young lady I
met had wide, staring eyes. Now, after two years
sitting by a person who never reasons, it strikes me
that every other person whom I meet has been think-
ing hard, and his logic stands out a prominent charac-
teristic.

" Aug. 27, 1879. Scientific Association met at Sara-
toga. . . . Professor Peirce, now over seventy years
old, was much the same as ever. He went on in the
cars with us, and was reading Mallock's ' Is Life
Worth Living?' and I asked, 'Is it?' to which Profes-
sor Peirce replied, ' Yes, I think it is.' Then I asked,
*If there is no future state, is life worth living? ' He
replied, * Indeed it is not ; life is a cruel tragedy if
there is no immortality.' I asked him if he conceived

246 MARIA MITCHELL

of the future life as one of embodiment, and he said

* Yes; I believe with St. Paul that there is a spiritual
body. . . . '

" Professor Peirce's paper was on the ' Heat of the
Sun ; ' he considers the sun fed not by impact of
meteors, but by the compression of meteors. I did not
think it very sound. He said some good things:

* Where the truth demands, accept ; what the truth
denies, reject.'

"Concord, Mass., 1879, To establish a school of
philosophy had been the dream of Alcott's life ; and there
he sat as I entered the vestry of a church on one of the
hottest days in August. He looked full as young as he
did twenty years ago, when he gave us a * conversation '
in Lynn. ** Elizabeth Peabody came into the room,
and walked up to the seat of the rulers ; her white hair
streamed over her shoulders in wild carelessness, and
she was as careless as ever about her whole attire, but
it was beautiful to see the attention shown to her by
Mr. Alcott and Mr. Sanborn.

** Emerson entered, — pale, thin, almost ethereal in
countenance, — followed by his daughter, who sat be-
side him and watched every word that he uttered. On
the whole, it was the same Emerson — he stumbled at
a quotation as he always did ; but his thoughts were
such as only Emerson could have thought, and the
sentences had the Emersonian pithiness. He made his
frequent sentences very emphatic. It was impossible
to see any thread of connection ; but it always was so —
the oracular sentences made the charm. The subject
was * Memory.' He said, * We remember the selfish-

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. 247

ness or the wrong act that we have committed for
years. It is as it should be — Memory is the police-
officer of the universe/ 'Architects say that the arch
never rests, and so the past never rests/ (Was it, never
sleeps?) 'When I talk with my friend who is a gene-
alogist, I feel that I am talking with a ghost.'

"The little vestry, fitted perhaps for a hundred
people, was packed with two hundred, — all people of
an intellectual cast of face, — and the attention was
intense. The thermometer was ninety in the shade !

" I did not speak to Mr. Emerson ; I felt that I must
not give him a bit of extra fatigue.

"July 12, 1880. The school of philosophy has
built a shanty for its meetings, but it is a shanty to be
proud of, for it is exactly adapted to its needs. It is a
long but not low building, entirely without finish, but
water-tight. A porch for entrance, and a recess simi-
lar at the opposite end, which makes the place for the
speakers. There was a small table upon the platform
on which were pond lilies, some shelves around, and a
few busts — one of Socrates, I think.

" I went in the evening to hear Dr. Harris on * Philos-
ophy.' The rain began to come down soon after I
entered, and my philosophy was not sufficient to keep
me from the knowledge that I had neither overshoes
nor umbrella ; I remembered, too, that it was but a nar-
row foot-path through the wet grass to the omnibus.
But I listened to Dr. Harris, and enjoyed it. He
lauded Fichte as the most accurate philosopher follow-
ing Kant — he said not of the greatest breadth^ but the
most acute.

248 MARIA MITCHELL

** After Dr. Harris' address, Mr. Alcott made a few
remarks that were excellent, and said that when we
had studied philosophy for fifteen years, as the lecturer
had done, we might know something; but as it was,
he had pulled us to pieces and then put us together
again.

" The audience numbered sixty persons.

"May, 1880. I have just finished Miss Peabody's
account of Channing. I have been more interested in
Miss Peabody than in Channing, and have felt how
valuable she must have been to him. How many of
Channing's sermons were instigated by her questions !
. . . Miss Peabody must have been very remarkable
as a young woman to ask the questions which she asked
at twenty.

" April, 1 88 1. The waste of flowers on Easter Sun-
day distressed me. Something is due to the flowers
themselves. They are massed together like a bushel of
corn, and look like red and white sugar-plums as seen in
a confectioner's window.

" A pillow of flowers is a monstrosity. A calla lily
in a vase is a beautiful creation; so is a single rose.
But when the rose is crushed by a pink on each side of
it, and daisies crush the pinks, and azaleas surround the
daisies, there is no beauty and no fitness.

" The cathedral had no flowers.

*'Aug. 22, 1882. We visited Whittier; we found
him at lunch, but he soon came into the parlor. He
was very chatty, and seemed glad to see us. Mrs. L.
was with me, and Whittier was very ready to write in
the album which she brought with her, belonging to

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 249

her adopted son. We drifted upon theological subjects,
and I asked Mr. Whittier if he thought that we fell from
a state of innocence; he replied that he thought we
were better than Adam and Eve, and if they fell, they
' fell up/

" His faith seems to be unbounded in the goodness
of God, and his belief in moral accountability. He
said, * I am a good deal of a Quaker in my conviction
that a light comes to me to dictate to me what is
right.' We stayed about an hour, and we were afraid
it would be too much for him ; but Miss Johnson, his
cousin, who lives with him, assured us that it was good
for him ; and he himself said that he was sorry to have
us go.

" One thing that he said, I noted : that his fancy was
for farm-work, but he was not strong enough ; he had
as a young man some literary ambition, but never
thought of attaining the reputation which had come to
him.

"July 31, 1883. I have had two or three rich days !
On Friday last I went to Holderness, N.H., to the
Asquam House ; I had been asked by Mrs. T. to join
her party. There were at this house Mr. Whittier,
Mr. and Mrs. Cartland, Professor and Mrs. Johnson, of
Yale, Mr. Williams, the Chinese scholar, his brother, an
Episcopal clergyman, and several others. The house
seemed full of fine, cultivated people. We stayed two
days and a half.

" And first of the scenery. The road up to the house
is a steep hill, and at the foot of the hill it winds and
turns around two lakes. The panorama is complete

2 so MARIA MITCHELL

one hundred and eighty degrees. Beyond the lakes lie
the mountains. We do not see Mt. Washington. The
house has a piazza nearly all around it. We had a room
on the first floor — large, and with two windows opening
to the floor.

"The programme of the day's work was delightfully
monotonous. For an hour or so after breakfast we
sat in the ladies' parlor, we sewed, and we told anec-
dotes. Whittier talked beautifully, almost always on
the future state and his confidence in it. Occasion-
ally he touched upon persons. He seems to have
loved Lydia Maria Child greatly.

"When the cool of the morning was over, we went
out upon the piazza, and later on we went under the
trees, where, it is said, Whittier spends most of the
time.

" There was little of the old-time theology in his
views ; his faith has been always very firm. Mr. Cart-
land asked me one day if I really felt there was any
doubt of the immortality of the soul. I told him that
on the whole I believed it more than I doubted it, but I
could not say that I felt no doubt. Whittier asked me
if there were no immortality if I should be distressed
by it, and I told him that I should be exceedingly dis-
tressed ; that it was the only thing that I craved. He
said that ' annihilation was better for the wicked than
everlasting punishment,* and to that I assented. He
said that he thought there might be persons so depraved
as not to be worth saving. I asked him if God made
such. Nobody seemed ready to reply. Besides my-
self there was another of the party to whom a dying

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 25 1

friend had promised to return, if possible, but had not
come.

"Whittier believed that they did sometimes come.
He said that of all whom he had lost, no one would be
so welcome to him as Lydia Maria. Child.

" We held a little service in the parlor of the hotel,
and Mrs. C. read the fourteenth chapter of John. Rev.
Mr. W. read a sermon from * The pure in heart shall
see God/ written by Parkhurst, of New York. He
thought the child should be told that in heaven he
should have his hobby-horse. After the service, when
we talked it over, I objected to telling the child this.
Whittier did not object ; he said that Luther told his
little boy that he should have a little dog with a golden
tail in heaven.

"Aug. 26, 1886. I have been to see an exhibition
of a cooking school. I found sixteen girls in the base-
ment of a school-house. They had long tables, across
which stretched a line of gas-stoves and jets of gas.
Some of the girls were using saucepans ; they set them
upon the stove, and then sat down where they could
see a clock while the boiling process went on.

" At one table a girl was cutting out doughnuts ; at
another a girl was making a pudding — a layer of bits
of bread followed by a layer of fruit. Each girl had
her rolling-pin, and moulding-board or saucepan.

"The chief peculiarity of these processes was the
cleanliness. The rolling-pins were clean, the knives
were clean, the aprons were clean, the hands were clean.
Not a drop was spilled, not a crumb was dropped. .

" If into the kitchen of the crowded mother there

252 MARIA MITCHELL

could come the utensils, the commodities, the clean
towels, the ample timey there would come, without the
lessons, a touch of the millennium.

" I am always afraid of manual-labor schools. I am
not afraid that these girls could not read, for every
American girl reads, and* to read is much more impor-
tant than to cook ; but I am afraid that not all can write
— some of them were not more than twelve years old.

"And what of the boys? Must a common cook
always be a girl? and must a boy not cook unless on
the top of the ladder, with the pay of the president of
Harvard College?

** I am jealous for the schools ; I have heard a gen-
tleman who stands high in science declare that the
cooking schools would eventually kill out every literary
college in the land — for women. But why not for
men? If the food for the body is more important than
the food for the mind, let us destroy the latter and
accept the former, but let us not continue to do what
has been tried for fifteen hundred years, — to keep one
half of the world to the starvation of the mind, in order
to feed better the physical condition of the other half.

'* Let us have cooks; but let us leave it a matter of
choice, as we leave the dressmaking and the shoe-
making, the millinery and the carpentry, — free to be
chosen !

" There are cultivated and educated women who
enjoy cooking; so there are cultivated men who enjoy
Kensington embroidery. Who objects? But take care
that some rousing of the intellect comes first, — that it
may be an enlightened choice, — and do not so fill the

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 253

day with bread and butter and stitches that no time is
left for the appreciation of Whittier, letting at least the
simple songs of daily life and the influence of rhythm
beautify the dreary round of the three meals a day."

Miss Mitchell had a stock of conundrums on hand,
and was a good guesser. She told her stories at all
times when they happened to come into her mind. She
would arrive at her sister's house, just from Poughkeepsie
on a vacation, and after the threshold was crossed and
she had said " Good morning," in a clear voice to be
heard by all within her sight, she would, perhaps, say,
" Well, I have a capital story which I must tell before I
take my bonnet off, or I shall forget it ! " And there
went with her telling an action, voice, and manner which
added greater point to the story, but which cannot be
described. One of her associates at Vassar, in recalling
some of her anecdotes, writes : " Professor Mitchell was
quite likely to stand and deliver herself of a bright little
speech before taking her seat at breakfast. It was as
though the short walk from the observatory had been
an inspiration to thought."

She was quick at repartee. On one occasion Char-
lotte Cushman and her friend Miss Stebbins were visiting
Miss Mitchell at Vassar. Miss Mitchell took them out
for a drive, and pointed out the different objects of
interest as they drove along the banks of the Hudson.
"What is that fine building on the hill?" asked Miss
Cushman. — "That," said Miss Mitchell, "wasaboysV
school, originally, but it is now used as a hotel, where
they charge five dollars a day ! " — " Five dollars a day? "
exclaimed Miss Cushman; "Jupiter Ammon ! " — "No,"

254 MARIA MITCHELL

said Miss Stebbins, " Ju{)iter Mammon ! " — " Not at all,"
said Miss Mitchell, ** ]up\tQr £^ammoH/"

" Farewell, Maria," said an old Friend, " I hope the
Lord will be with thee."

" Good-by," she replied, " I know he will be with you."

A characteristic trait in Miss Mitchell was her aver-
sion to receiving unsolicited advice in regard to her
private affairs. "A suggestion is an impertinence," she
would often say. The following anecdote shows how
she received such counsel :

A literary man of more than national reputation said
to one of her admirers, " I, for one, cannot endure your
Maria Mitchell." At her solicitation he explained why ;
and his reason was, as she had anticipated, founded on
personal pique. It seems he had gone up from New
York to Poughkeepsie especially to call upon Professor
Mitchell. During the course of conversation, with that
patronizing condescension which some self-important
men extend to all women indiscriminately, he proceeded
to inform her that her manner of living was not in
accordance with his ideas of expediency. " Now," he
said, '* instead of going for each one of your meals all
the way from your living-rooms in the observatory
over to the dining- hall in the college building, I should
think it would be far more convenient and sensible for
you to get your breakfast, at least, right in your own
apartments. In the morning you could make a cup of
coffee and boil an egg with almost no trouble." At
which Professor Mitchell drew herself up with the air of
a tragic queen, saying, "And is my time worth no more
than to boil eggs ? "

DEATH 255

CHAPTER XIII

MISS MITCHELL'S LETTERS — WOMAN SUFFRAGE — MEMBERSHIP

IN VARIOUS SOCIETIES — PUBLISHED ARTICLES DEATH —

CONCLUSION

Miss Mitchell was a voluminous letter writer and
an excellent correspondent, but her letters are not
essays, and not at all in the approved style of the
" Complete Letter Writer." If she had any particular
thing to communicate, she rushed into the subject in
the first line. In writing to her own family and intimate
friends, she rarely signed her full name; sometimes
she left it out altogether, but ordinarily " M. M." was
appended abruptly when she had expressed all that she
had to say. She wrote as she talked, with directness
and promptness. No one, in watching her while she
was writing a letter, ever saw her pause to think
what she should say next or how she should express
the thought. When she came to that point, the
" M. M." was instantly added. She had no secretive-
ness, and in looking over her letters it has been almost
impossible to find one which did not contain too much
that was personal, either about herself or others, to
make it proper ; especially as she herself would be very
unwilling to make the affairs of others public.

"Oct. 22, i860. I have spent $100 on dress this
year. I have a ver> pretty new felt bonnet of the

2 $6 MARIA MITCHELL

fashionable shape, trimmed with velvet; it cost only
$7, which, of course, was pitifully cheap for Broadway.
If thou thinks after $ioo it wouldn't be extravagant for
me to have a waterproof cloak and a linsey-woolsey
morning dress, please to send me patterns of the latter
material and a description of waterproofs of various
prices. They are so ugly, and I am so ditto, that I feel
if a few dollars, more or less, would make me look
better, even in a storm, I must not mind it."

" My orthodoxy is settled beyond dispute, I trust, by
the following circumstance: The editor of a New York
magazine has written to me to furnish an article for the
Christmas number on ' The Star in the East.' I have
ventured, in my note of declination, to mention that if I
investigated that subject I might decide that there was
no star in the case, and then what would become of
me, and where should I go ? Since that he has not
written, so I may have hung myself!

** 1879. April 25. I have *done' New York very
much as we did it thirty years ago. On Saturday I
went to Miss Booth's reception, and it was like Miss
Lynch's, only larger than Miss Lynch's was when I was
there. . . . Miss Booth and a friend live on Fifty-
ninth street, and have lived together for years. Miss
Booth is a nice-looking woman. She says she has
often been told that she looked like me ; she has gray
hair and black eyes, but is fair and well-cut in feature.
I had a very nice time.

** On Sunday I went to hear Frothingham, and he was
at his very best. The subject was * Aspirations of
Man,* and the sermon was rich in thought and in word.

DEATH 257

. . , Frothingham*s discourse was more cheery than
usual ; he talked about the wonderful idea of personal
immortality, and he said if it be a dream of the imagi-
nation let us worship the imagination. He spoke of
Mrs. Child's book on * Aspirations/ and I shall order it
at once. The only satire was such a sentence as this :
on speaking of a piece of Egyptian sculpture he said,
' The gates of heaven opened to the good, not to the
orthodox.'

" To-day, Monday, I have been to a public school (a
primary) and to Stewart's mansion. I asked the major-
domo to take us through the rooms on the lower floor,
which he did. I know of no palace which comes up
to it. The palaces always have a look as if at some
point they needed refurbishing up. I suppose that
Mrs. Stewart uses that dining-room, but it did not look
as if it was made to eat in. I still like Ger6me's

* Chariot Race ' better than anything else of his. The

* Horse Fair ' was too high up for me to enjoy it, and a
little too mixed up.

" 1873. St. Petersburg is another planet, and, strange
to say, is an agreeable planet. Some of these Euro-
peans are far ahead of us in many things. I think we
are in advance only in one universal democracy of
freedom. But then, that is everything.

"Nov. 17, 1875. I think you are right to decide to
make your home pleasant at any sacrifice which in-
volves only silence. And you are so all over a radi-
cal, that it won't hurt you to be toned down a little,
and in a few years, as the world moves, your family
will have moved one way and you the other a little,

258 MARIA MITCHELL

and you will suddenly find yourself on the same
plane. It is much the way that has been between Miss

and myself. To-day she is more of a women's

rights woman than I was when I first knew her, while
I begin to think that the girls would better dress at tea-
time, though I think on that subject we thought alike
at first, so I'll take another example.

" I have learned to think that a young girl would
better not walk to town alone, even in the daytime.
When I came to Vassar I should have allowed a child
to do it. But I never knew much of the world — never
shall — nor will you. And as we were both born a
little deficient in worldly caution and worldly policy,
let us receive from others those lessons, — do as well
as we catiy and keep our heart unworldly if our manners
take on something of those ways.

"Oct. 25, 1875. ... I have scarcely got over
the tire of the congress ^ yet, although it is a week since
I returned. I feel as if a great burden was lifted from
my soul. You will see my ' speech' in the 'Woman's
Journal,* but in the last sentence it should be * eastward '
and not ' earth^dixd' It was a grand affair, and babies
came in arms. School-boys stood close to the platform,
and school-girls came, books in hand. The hall was a
beautiful opera-house, and could hold at least one thou-
sand seven hundred. It was packed and jammed, and
rough men stood in the aisles. When I had to speak
to announce a paper I stood very still until they became
quiet. Once, as I stood in that way, a man at the

* The annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Women,
of which Miss Mitchell was president. It was held at Sjrracuse, N.Y., in 1875.

DEATH 259

extreme rear, before I had spoken a word, shouted out,
* Louder ! * We all burst into a laugh. Then, of course,
I had to make them quiet again. I lifted the little
mallet, but I did not strike it, and they all became still.
I was surprised at the good breeding of such a crowd.
In the evening about half was made up of men. I
could not have believed that such a crowd would keep
still when I asked them to.

" They say I did well. Think of my developing as
a president of a social science society i^ my old age ! "

Miss Mitchell took no prominent part in the woman
suffrage movement, but she believed in it firmly, and
its leaders were some of her most highly valued friends.

"Sept. 7, 1875. Went to a picnic for woman suf-
frage at a beautiful grove at Medfield, Mass. It was a
gathering of about seventy-five persons (mostly from
Needham), whose president seemed to be vigorous and
good-spirited.

" The main purpose of the meeting was to try to
affect public sentiment to such an extent as to lead to
the defeat of a man who, when the subject of woman
suffrage was before the Legislature, said that the women
had all they wanted now — that they could get anything
with * their eyes as bright as the buttons on an angel's
coat.* Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Rev. Mr. Bush, Miss
Eastman, and William Lloyd Garrison spoke.

" Garrison did not look a day older than when I first
saw him, forty years ago; he spoke well — they said
with less fire than he used in his younger days. Gar-
rison said what every one says — that the struggle for
women was the old anti-slavery struggle over again ;

26o . MARIA MITCHELL

that as he looked around at the audience beneath the
trees, it seemed to be the same scene that he had
known before.

"... We had a very good bit of missionary work
done at our table (at Vassar) to-day. A man whom
we all despise began to talk against voting by women.
I felt almost inclined to pay him something for his
remarks.

"A group from the Washington Women Suffrage
Association stopped here to-day. ... I liked
Susan B. Anthony very much. She seemed much
worn, but was all alive. She is eighteen months
younger than I, but seems much more alert. I suppose
brickbats are livelier than logarithms ! **

Miss Mitchell was a member of several learned soci-
eties.

She was the first woman elected to membership of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, whose
headquarters are at Boston.

In 1869 she was chosen a member of the American
Philosophical Society, a society founded by Benjamin
Franklin, in Philadelphia.

The American Association for the Advancement of
Science made her a member in the early part of its
existence. Miss Mitchell was one of the earliest mem-
bers of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Women. At one period she was president of
the association, and for many years served as chairman
of the committee on science. In this latter capacity
she reached, through circulars and letters, women
studying science in all parts of the country; and the

DEATH 261

reports, as shown from year to year, show a wonderful
increase in the number of such women. She was a
member, also, of the New England Women's Club,
of Boston, and after her annual visit at Christmas she
entertained her students at Vassar with descriptions of
the receptions and meetings of that body. She was
also a member of the New York Sorosis. She re-
ceived the degree of Ph.D. from Rutgers Female
College in 1870, her first degree of LL.D. from
Hanover College in 1882, and her last LL.D. from Co-
lumbia College in 1887.

Miss Mitchell had no ambition to appear in print,
and most of her published articles were in response to
applications from publishers.

A paper entitled ** Mary Somerville " appeared in
the "Atlantic Monthly" for May, i860. There were
several articles in " Silliman's Journal," — mostly results
of observations on Jupiter and Saturn, — a few popular
science papers in '* Hours at Home," and one on the
** Herschels," printed in " The Century** just after her
death.

Miss Mitchell also read a few lectures to small socie-
ties, and to one or two girls* schools ; but she never
allowed such outside work to interfere with her duties
at Vassar College, to which she devoted herself heart
and soul.

When the failure of her health became apparent to
the members of her family, it was with the utmost diffi-
culty that Miss Mitchell could be prevailed upon to
resign her position. She had fondly hoped to remain
at Vassar until she should be seventy years old, of

262 MARIA MITCHELL

which she lacked about six months. It was hoped
that complete rest might lead to several years more of
happy life for her ; but it was not to be so — she died
in Lynn, June 28, 1889.

It was one of Miss Mitchell's boasts that she had
earned a salary for over fifty years, without any inter-
mission. She also boasted that in July, 1883, when
she slipped and fell, spraining herself so that she was
obliged to remain in the house a day or two, it was
the first time in her memory when she had remained
in the house a day. In fact, she made a point of
walking out every day, no matter what the weather
might be. A serious fall, during her illness in Lynn,
stopped forever her daily walks.

She had resigned her position in January, 1888.
The resignation was laid on the table until the follow-
ing June, at which time the trustees made her Professor
Emeritus, and offered her a home for life at the observ-
atory. This offer she did not accept, preferring to live
with her family in Lynn. The following extracts from
letters which she received at this time show with what
reverence and love she was regarded by faculty and
students.

"Jan. 9, 1888. . . . You may be sure that we
shall be glad to do all we can to honor one whose faith-
ful service and honesty of heart and life have been
among the chief inspirations of Vassar College through-
out its history. Of public reputation you have doubtless
had enough, but I am sure you cannot have too much
of the affection and esteem which we feel toward you,
who have had the privilege of working with you.**

DEATH 263

" Jan. 10, 1888. You will consent, you must consent,
to having your home here, and letting the work go. It
is not astronomy that is wanted and needed, it is Maria
Mitchell. . . . The richest part of my life here is
connected with you. ... I cannot picture Vassar
without you. There's nothing to point to ! "

" May 5, 1889. In all the great wonder of life, you
have given me more of what I have wanted than any
other creature ever gave me. I hoped I should amount
to something for your sake."

Dr. Eliza M. Mosher, at one time resident physician
at the college, said of her : " She was quick to with-
draw objections when she was convinced of error in her
judgment. I well remember her opposition to the
ground I took in my * maiden speech * in faculty meet-
ing, and how, at supper, she stood, before sitting down,
to say, * You were right this afternoon. I have thought
the matter over, and, while I do not like to believe it, I
think it is true.' "

Of her rooms at the observatory. Miss Grace Anna
Lewis, who had been a guest, wrote thus : '* Her furni-
ture was plain and simple, and there was a frank sim-
plicity corresponding therewith which made me believe
she chose to have it so. It looked natural for her. I
think I should have been disappointed had I found her
rooms fitted up with undue elegance."

" Professor Mitchell's position at Vassar gave astron-
omy a prominence there that it has never had in any
other college for women, and in but few for men. I
suppose it would have made no difference what she
had taught. Doubtless she never suspected how many

264 MARIA MITCHELL

students endured the mathematical work of junior
Astronomy in order to be within range of her magnetic
personality." (From "Wide Awake," September,
1889.)

A graduate writes : " Her personality was so strong
that it was felt all over the college, even by those who
were not in her department, and who only admired her
from a distance.*'

Extract from a letter written after her death by a
former pupil : " I count Maria Mitchell's services to
Vassar and her pupils infinitely valuable, and her charac-
ter and attainments great beyond anything that has yet
been told. ... I was one of the pupils upon whom
her freedom from all the shams and self-deceptions made
an impression that elevated my whole standard, mental
and moral. . . . The influence of her own personal
character sustains its supreme test in the evidence con-
stantly accumulating, that it strengthens rather than
weakens with the lapse of time. Her influence upon
her pupils who were her daily companions has been
permanent, character-moulding, and unceasingly pro-
gressive."

President Taylor, in his address at her funeral, said :
** If I were to select for comment the one most striking
trait of her character, I should name her genuineness.
There was no false note in Maria Mitchell's thinking or
utterance. . . .

" One who has known her kindness to little children,
who has watched her little evidences of thoughtful care
for her associates and friends, who has seen her put
aside her own long-cherished rights that she might

DEATH 265

make the way of a new and untried officer easier, can-
not forget the tenderer side of her character. . . .
'* But it would be vain for me to try to tell just what
it was in Miss Mitchell that attracted us who loved her.
It was this combination of great strength and inde-
pendence, of deep affection and tenderness, breathed
through and through with the sentiment of a perfectly
genuine life, which has made for us one of the pil-
grim-shrines of life the study in the observatory of
Vassar College where we have known her at home^
surrounded by the evidences of her honorable profes-
sional career. She has been an impressive figure in
our time, and one whose influence lives."

#

m

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

On the 17th 01 December, 1831, a gold medal of the value*
of twenty ducats was founded, at the suggestion of Professor
Schumacher, of Altona, by his Majesty Frederic VI.,. at that
time king of Denmark, to be awarded to any person who>
should first discover a telescopic comet. This foundation and;
the conditions on which the medal would be- awardfedl were-
announced to the pubHc in the "Astronomische Nachrichten"
for the 20th of March, 1832. The regulations underwent a
revision after a few years, and in April, 1840 (" Astronomische
Nachrichten," No. 400), were republished as follows :

" I. The medal will be given to the first discoverer of any
comet, which, at the time of its discovery, is invisible to the
naked eye, and whose periodic time is unknown.

" 2. The discoverer, if a resident of any part of Europe
except Great Britain, is to make known his discovery to Mr.
Schumacher at Altona. If a resident in Great Britain, or any
other quarter of the globe except the continent of Europe,
he is to make his discovery known directly to Mr. Francis
Baily, London. [Since Mr. Baily's decease, G. B. Airy, Esq.,
Astronomer Royal, has been substituted in this and in the 7 th
and 8th articles of the regulations.]

" 3. This communication must be made by ^<t first post after
the discovery. If there is no regular mail at the place of dis-
covery, the first opportunity of any other kind must be made
use of, without waiting for other observations. Exact compli-
ance with this condition is indispensable. If this condition is

(267)

j268 MARIA MITCHELL

•not complied with, and only one person discovers the comet,
.no medal will be given for the discovery. Otherwise, the
medal will be assigned to the discoverer who earliest complies
with the condition.

** 4. The communication must not only state as exactly as
possible the time of the discovery, in order to settle the ques-
tion between rival claims, but also as near as may be the place
.of the comet, and the direction in which it is moving, as far
as these points can be determined from the observations of
.one night.

"5. If the observations of one night are not sufficient to
settle these points, the enunciation of the discovery must still
be made, in compliance with the third article. As soon as
a second observation is made, it must be communicated in
like manner with the first, and with it the longitude of the
place where the discovery is made, unless it take place at
some known observatory. The expectation of obtaining a
second observation will never be received as a satisfactory
reason for postponing the communication of the first.

** 6. The medal will be assigned twelve months after the
discovery of the comet, and no claim will be admitted after
that period.

" 7. Messrs. Baily and Schumacher are to decide if a dis-
covery has been made. If they differ, Mr. Gauss, of Gottin-
gen, is to decide.

" 8. Messrs. Baily and Schumacher have agreed to com-
municate mutually to each other every announcement of a
discovery.

"Altona, April, 1840."

On the ist of October, 1847, at half-past ten o'clock, P.M.,
a telescopic comet was discovered by Miss Maria Mitchell,
of Nantucket, nearly vertical above Polaris about five de-
grees. The further progress and history of the discovery will

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 269

sufficiently appear from the following correspondence. On
the 3d of October the same comet was seen at half-past seven,
P.M., at Rome, by Father de Vico, and information of the
fact was immediately communicated by him to Professor
Schumacher at Altona. On the 7 th of October, at twenty
minutes past nine, P.M., it was observed by Mr. W. R. Dawes,
at Camden Lodge, Cranbrook, Kent, in England, and on the
nth it was seen by Madame Rtimker, the wife of the direc-
tor of the observatory at Hamburg. Mr. Schumacher, in
announcing this last discovery, observes : ' " Madame Rtim-
ker has for several years been on the lookout for comets, and
her persevering industry seemed at last about to be rewarded,
when a letter was received from Father de Vico, ad-
dressed to the editor of this journal, from which it appeared
that the same comet had been observed by him on the 3d
instant at Rome."

Not deeming it probable that his daughter had anticipated
the observers of this country and Europe in the discovery of
this comet, no steps were taken by Mr. Mitchell with a view
to obtaining the king of Denmark's medal. Prompt informa-
tion, however, of the discovery was transmitted by Mr. Mitchell
to his friend, William C. Bond, Esq., director of the observa-
tory at Cambridge. The observations of the Messrs. Bond
upon the comet commenced on the 7th of October ; and on
the 30th were transmitted by me to Mr. Schumacher, for pub-
lication in the " Astronomische Nachrichten." It was stated
in the memorandum of the Messrs. Bond that the comet was
seen by Miss Mitchell on the ist instant. This notice
appeared in the " Nachrichten " of Dec. 9, 1847, and the
priority of Miss Mitchell's discovery was immediately ad-
mitted throughout Europe.

My attention had been drawn to the subject of the king of

^ *' Astronomische Nachrichten," No. 6i6.

2/0 MARIA MITCHELL

Denmark's comet medal by some allusion to it in my corre-
spondence with Professor Schumacher, in reference to the dis-
covery of telescopic comets by Mr. George P. Bond, of the
observatory at Cambridge. Having learned some weeks after
Miss Mitchell's discovery that no communication had been
made on her behalf to the trustees of the medal, and aware
that the regulations in this respect were enforced with strict-
ness, I was apprehensive that it might be too late to supply
the omission. Still, however, as the spirit of the regulations
had been complied with by Mr. Mitchell's letter to Mr. Bond
of the 3d of October, it seemed worth while at least to
make the attempt to procure the medal for his daughter. Al-
though the attempt might be unsuccessful, it would at any rate
cause the priority of her discovery to be more authentically
established than it might otherwise have been.

I accordingly wrote to Mr. Mitchell for information on the
subject, and applied for, and obtained from Mr. Bond, Mr.
MitchelPs original letter to him of the 3d of October^ with the
Nantucket postmark. These papers were transmitted to Pro-
fessor Schumacher, with a letter dated 15th and 24th January.

On the 8th of February-.! wrote a letter to my much es-
teemed friend, Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N., formerly presi-
dent of the Astronomical Society at London, requesting him
to interest himself with Professor Schumacher to obtain the
medal for Miss Mitchell. Captain Smyth entered with great
readiness into the matter, and addressed a note on the subject
to Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, at Greenwich. Mr. Airy
kindly wrote to Professor Schumacher without loss of time ;
but it was their united opinion that a compliance with the
condition relative to immediate notice of a discovery was in-
dispensable, and that it was consequently out of their power to
award the medal to Miss Mitchell. Mr. Schumacher suggested,
as the only means by which this difficulty could be overcome,

INTkODUCTORY NOTE 27 1

an application to the Danish government, through the Ameri-
can legation at Copenhagen.

Conceiving that the correspondence could be carried on
more promptly through the Danish legation at Washington, I
addressed a letter on the 20th of April to Mr. Steene-Bill6,
Charge d'AfFaires of the king of Denmark in this country,
and sent with it copies of the documents which had been
forwarded to Professor Schumacher. Mr. Steene-Bill6, how-
ever, was of opinion that the application, if made at all,
should be made through the American legation at Copenhagen ;
but he expressed at the same time a confident opinion that,
owing to the condition and political relations of Denmark,
the application would necessarily prove unavailing.

It was at this time that the difficulties in Schleswig-Holstein
were at their height, and it seemed hopeless at such a mo-
ment, and in face of the opinion of the official representative
of the Danish government in this country, to engage its
attention to an affair of this kind. No further attempt was
accordingly made by me, for some weeks, to pursue the
matter. In fact, a report reached the United States that the
medal had actually been awarded to Father de Vico. Al-
though this was believed by me to be an unfounded rumor,
the regulations allowing one year for the presentation of
claims, there was reason to apprehend that it proceeded from
some quarter well informed as to what would probably take
place at the expiration of the twelvemonth.

On the 5 th of August, Father de Vico, who had left
Rome in the spring in consequence of the troubles there,
made a visit to Cambridge, in company with the Right
Rev. Bishop Fitzpatrick, of Boston, and on this occasion
informed me that he had received an intimation from Pro-
fessor Schumacher that the comet-medal would be awarded
to Miss Mitchell. I was disposed to think that Father

2/2 MARIA MITCHELL

de Vico labored under some misapprehension as to the pur-
port of Professor Schumacher's communications, as afterwards
appeared to be the case. I felt encouraged, however, by his
statement not only to renew my correspondence on the sub-
ject with Professor Schumacher, but I determined, on the 8th
of August, to address a letter to R. P. Fleniken, Esq., Charg^
d' Affaires of the United States at Copenhagen. This letter
was accompanied with copies of the original papers.

Mr. Fleniken entered with great zeal and interest into the
subject. He lost no time in bringing it before the Danish
government by means of a letter to the Count de Knuth, the
Minister at that time for Foreign Affairs, and of another to the
king of Denmark himself. His Majesty, with the most oblig-
ing promptness, ordered a reference of the case to Professor
Schumacher, with directions to report thereon without delay.
Mr. Schumacher had been for a long time in possession of the
documents establishing Miss Mitchell's priority, which was,
indeed, admitted throughout scientific Europe. Professor
Schumacher immediately made his report in favor of granting
the medal to Miss Mitchell, and this report was accepted by
the king. The result was forthwith communicated by the
Count de Knuth to Mr. Fleniken, with the gratifying intelli-
gence that the king had ordered the medal to be awarded to
Miss Mitchell, and that it would be delivered to him for
transmission as soon as it could be struck off. This has since
been done.

It must be regarded as a striking proof of an enlightened
interest for the promotion of science, not less than of a kind
regard for the rights and feelings of the individual most con-
cerned in this decision, that the king of Denmark should have
bestowed his attention upon this subject, at a period of so
much difficulty and alarm for Europe in general and his own
kingdom in particular. It would not have been possible to

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 273

act more promptly in a season of the profoundest tranquillity.
His Majesty has on this occasion shown that he is animated
by the same generous zeal for the encouragement of astro-
nomical research which led his predecessor to found the
medal; while he has performed an act of gracious courtesy
toward a stranger in a distant land which must ever be warmly
appreciated by her friends and countrymen.

Nor ought the obliging agency of the Count de Knuth, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, to be passed without notice.
The slightest indifference on his part, even the usual delays of
office, would have prevented the application from reaching
the king before the expiration of the twelvemonth within
which all claims must, by the regulations, be presented. No
one can reflect upon the pressure of business which must
have existed in the foreign office at Copenhagen during the
past year, without feeling that the Count de Knuth must
largely share his sovereign's zeal for science, as well as his love
of justice. Nothing else will account for the attention be-
stowed at such a political crisis on an affair of this kind.
The same attention appears to have been given to the subject
by his successor, Count Moltka.

It was quite fortunate for the success of the application
that the office of charge d'affaires of the United States at
Copenhagen happened to be filled by a gentleman disposed to
give it his prompt and persevering support. A matter of this
kind, of course, lay without the province of his official duties.
But no subject officially committed to him by the instructions
of his government could have been more zealously pursued.
On the very day on which my communication of the 8th of
August reached him, Mr. Fleniken addressed his letters to the
minister of foreign affairs and to the king, and he continued
to give his attention to the subject till the object was happily
effected, and the medal placed in his hands.

J

274

MARIA MITCHELL

The event itself, however insignificant in the great world of
politics and business, is one of pleasing interest to the friends
of American science, and it has been thought proper that the
following record of it should be preserved in a permanent
form. I have regretted the frequent recurrence of my own
name in the correspondence, and have suppressed several let-
ters of my own which could be spared, without rendering less
intelligible the communications of the other parties, to whom
the interest and merit of the transaction belong.

EDWARD EVERETT.
Cambridge, ist February, 1849.

CORRESPONDENCE

HON'. WILLIAM MITCHELL TO WILLIAM C. BOND, ESQ., CAMBRIDGE.

" Nantucket, lo mo. 3d, 1847.

" My dear Friend : I write now merely to say that Maria
discovered a telescopic comet at half-past ten on the evening
of the first instant, at that hour nearly vertical above Polaris
five degrees. Last evening it had advanced westwardly ; this
evening still further, and nearing the pole. It does not bear
illumination, but Maria has obtained its right ascension and
declination, and will not suffer me to announce it. Pray tell
me whether it is one of George's ; if not, whether it has been
seen by anybody. Maria supposes it may be an old story. If
quite convenient, just drop a line to her; it will oblige me
much. I expect to leave home in a day or two, and shall be
in Boston next week, and I would like to have her hear from
you before I can meet you. I hope it will not give thee much
trouble amidst thy close engagements.

" Our regards are to all of you, most truly,

"WiLUAM Mitchell."

HON. EDWARD EVERETT TO HON. WILLIAM MFTCHELL.

"Cambridge, loth January, 1848.

" Dear Sir : I take the liberty to inquire of you whether
any steps have been taken by you, on behalf of your danghter,
by way of claiming the medal of the king of Denmark for the

(275)

276 MARIA MITCHELL

first discovery of a telescopic comet. The regulations require
that information of the discovery should be transmitted by the
next mail to Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, if the discovery
is made elsewhere than on the continent of Europe. If made
in the United States, I understand from Mr. Schumacher that
information may be sent to the Danish minister at Washing-
ton, who will forward it to Mr. Airy, — but it must be sent by
next mail.

** In consequence of non-compliance with these regulations,
Mr. George Bond has on one occasion lost the medal. I
trust this may not be the case with Miss Mitchell.

" I am, dear sir, with much respect, faithfully yours,

"Edward Everett."

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF THE HON. WILLIAM MTTCHELL TO

HON. EDWARD EVERETT.

"Nantucket, ist mo. 15th, 1848.

"Esteemed Friend: Thy kind letter of the loth instant
reached me duly. No steps were taken by my daughter in
claim of the medal of the Danish king. On the night of the
discovery, I was fully satisfied that it was a comet from its
location, though its real motion at this time was so nearly
opposite to that of the earth (the two bodies approaching
each other) that its apparent motion was scarcely appre-
ciable. I urged very strongly that it should be published
immediately, but she resisted it as strongly, though she could
but acknowledge her conviction that it was a comet. She
remarked to me, * If it is a new comet, our friends, the Bonds,
have seen it. It may be an old one, so far as relates to the
discovery, and one which we have not followed.' She con-
sented, however, that I should write to William C. Bond,
which I did by the first mail that left the island after the

CORRESPONDENCE 27 J

discovery. This letter did not reach my friend till the 6th or
7 th, having been somewhat delayed here and also in the post-
office sLt Cambridge.

" Referring to my journal I find these words : ' Maria will
not consent to have me announce it as an original discovery/

" The stipulations of His Majesty have, therefore, not been
complied with, and the peculiar circumstances of the case,
her sex, and isolated position, may not be sufficient to justify a
suspension of the rules. Nevertheless, it would gratify me
that the generous monarch should know that there is a love
of science even in this to him remote corner of the earth.
" I am thine, my dear friend, most truly,

"William Mitchell."

HON. EDWARD EVERETT TO PROFESSOR SCHUMACHER, AT ALTONA.

** Cambridge, I5lh January, 1848.

" Dear Sir : Your letter of the 2 7th October, accompanying
the * Planeten-Circular,* reached me but a few days since. If
you would be so good as to forward to the care of John Miller,
Esq., 26 Henrietta street, Covent Garden, London, any letter
you may do me the favor to write to me, it would reach me
promptly.

" The regulations relative to the king of Denmark's medal
have not hitherto been understood in this country. I shall
take care to give publicity to them. Not only has Mr. Bond
lost the medal to which you think he would have been en-
titled,^ but I fear the same has happened to Miss Mitchell,
of Nantucket, who discovered the comet of last October on

1 Mr. Schumacher had remarked to me, in his letter of the ayth of October, that
Mr. George P. Bond would have received the medal for the comet first seen by him
as a nebulous object on the i8th of February, 1846, if his observation made at that
time had been communicated, according to the regulations, to the trustees of the
medal.

2/8 MARIA MITCHELL

the first day of that month. I think it was not seen in Europe
till the third.

" I remain, dear sir, with great respect, faithfully yours,

"Edward Everett."

it

HON. EDWARD EVERETT TO HON. WILLIAM MnCHELL.

" Cambridge, i8th January, 1848.

Dear Sir; I have your esteemed favor of the 15 th, which
reached me this day. I am fearful that the rigor deemed
necessary in enforcing the regulations relative to the king of
Denmark's prize may prevent your daughter from receiving it.
I learn from Mr. Schumacher's letter, that, besides Mr. George
Bond, Dr. Bremeker lost the medal because he allowed a
single post-day to pass before he announced his discovery.
There could, in his case, be no difficulty in establishing the
fact of his priority, nor any doubt of the good faith with
which it was asserted. But inasmuch as Miss Mitchell's dis-
covery was actually made known to Mr. Bond by the next mail
which left your island, it is possible — barely possible — that this
may be considered as a substantial compliance with the regu-
lation. At any rate, it is worth trying ; and if we can do no
more we can establish the lady's claim to all the credit of the
prior discovery. I shall therefore apply to Mr. Bond for the
letter which you wrote, and if it contains nothing improper
to be seen by others we will forward it to the Danish min-
ister at Washington with a certified extract from your journal.
I will have a certified copy of all these papers prepared and
sent to Mr. Schumacher ; and if any departure from the letter
of the regulations is admissible, this would seem to be a case
for it. I trust Miss Mitchell's retiring disposition will not
lead her to oppose the taking of these steps.

I am, dear sir, with great respect, faithfully yours,

[Signed] "Edward Everett."

it

CORRESPONDENCE 279

POSTSCRIPT TO MR. EVERETT'S LETTER TO PROFESSOR
SCHUMACHER OF THE 15TH JANUARY, 1 848.

"P.S. — The foregoing was written to go by the steamer of
the 15 th, but was a few hours too late. I have since received
some information in reference to the comet of October which
leads me to hope that you may feel it in your power to award
the medal to Miss Maria Mitchell. Miss Mitchell saw the
comet at half-past ten o'clock on the evening of October ist.
Her father, a skilful astronomer, made an entry in his journal
to that effect. On the third day of October he wrote a letter
to Mr. Bond, the director of our observatory, announcing
the discovery. This letter was despatched the following day,
being the first post-day after the discovery of the comet.
This letter I transmit to you, together with letters from Mr.
Mitchell and Mr. Bond to myself. Nantucket, as you are
probably aware, is a small, secluded island, lying off the
extreme point of the coast of Massachusetts. Mr. Mitchell is
a member of the executive council of Massachusetts and a
most respectable person.

" As the claimant is a young lady of great diffidence, the
place a retired island, remote from all the high-roads of com-
munication ; as the conditions have not been well understood
in this country ; and especially as there was a substantial com-
pliance with them — I hope His Majesty may think Miss Maria
Mitchell entitled to the medal.

*' Cambridge, 24th January, 1848.

28o MARIA MITCHELL

EXl-RACT FROM A LETTER FROM MR. EVERETT TO CAPTAIN W. H.
SMYTH, R.N., LATE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY, LONDON, DATED CAMBRIDGE, 8tH FEBRUARY, 1 848.

" I have lately been making interest with Mr. Schumacher
to cause the king of Denmark's medal to be given to Miss
Mitchell for the discovery of the comet to which her name
has been given, if I mistake not, in the journal of your society
as well as in the ' Nachrichten.* She unquestionably dis-
covered it at half-past ten on the evening of the ist of Octo-
ber ; it was not, I think, seen in Europe till the 3d. Her
father, on the 3d, wrote a letter to Mr. Bond, the director of
our observatory, informing him of this discovery; and this
letter was sent by the first mail that left the little out-of-the-
way island (Nantucket) after the discovery. The spirit of
the regulations was therefore complied with. But as the letter
requires that the notice should be given either to the Danish
minister resident in the country or to Mr. Airy, if the dis-
covery is made elsewhere than on the continent of Europe, it
is possible that some demur may be made. The precise terms
of the regulations have not been sufficiently made known in
this country. As the claim in this case is really a just one,
the claimant a lady, industrious, vigilant, a good astronomer
and mathematician, I cannot but hope she will succeed ; and
if you have the influence with Schumacher which you ought
to have, I would take it kindly if you would use it in her favor."

CAPTAIN SMYTH TO MR. EVERETT.

" 3 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, loth March, 1848.

"My DEAR Sm : On the receipt of your last letter, I forthwith
wrote to the astronomer royal, urging the claims of Miss
Mitchell, of Nantucket, and he immediately replied, saying

CORRESPONDENCE 2 8 1

that he would lose no time in consulting his official colleague,
Mr. Schumacher, on the subject. I have just received the
accompanying letter from Greenwich, by which you will per-
ceive how the matter stands at present; I say at present,
because, however the claim may be considered as to the tech-
nical form of application, there is no doubt whatever of her
fully meriting the award.

" I am, my dear sir, very faithfully yours,
[Signed] " W. H. Smyth."

G. B. AIRY, ESQ., TO CAPTAIN SMYTH.
" Royal Observatory, Greenwich, loth March, 1848.

"My dear Sir: I have received Mr. Schumacher's answer
in regard to Miss Mitchell's supposed claims for the king of
Denmark's medal. We agree, without the smallest hesitation,
that we cannot award the medal. We have in all cases acted
strictly in conformity with the published rules ; and I am con-
vinced, and I believe that Mr. Schumacher is convinced, that
it is absolutely necessary that we do not depart from them.

" Mr. Schumacher suggests, as the only way in which Miss
Mitchell's claim in equity could be urged, that application
might be made on her part, through the American legation,
to the king of Denmark; and the king can, if he pleases,
make exception to the usual rules.

" I am, my dear sir, yours most truly,
[Signed] " G. B. Airy."

HON. EDWARD EVERETT TO R. P. FLENIKEN.

** Cambridge, Mass., 8th August, 1848.

" Dear Sir : Without the honor of your personal acquaint-
ance, I take the liberty of addressing you on a subject which I
am confident will interest you as a friend of American science.

282 MARIA MITCHELL

" You are doubtless aware that by the liberality of one of
the kings of Denmark, the father, I believe, of his late
Majesty, a foundation was made for a gold medal to be given
to the first discoverer of a telescopic comet. Mr. Schumacher,
of Altona, and Mr. Baily, of London (and since his decease
Mr. Airy, Astronomer Royal at Greenwich), were made the
trustees of this foundation. Among the regulations estab-
lished for awarding the medal was this : that the discoverer
should, by the first mail which leaves the place of his residence
after the discovery, give notice thereof to Mr. Schumacher if
the discovery is made on the continent of Europe, and to Mr.
Airy if made in any other part of the world ; provided that,
if the discovery be made in America, the notice may be given
to the Danish minister at Washington. It has been deemed
necessary to adhere with great strictness to this regulation, in
order to prevent fraudulent claims.

" On the first day of October last, at about half-past ten
o'clock in the evening, a telescopic comet was discovered, in
the island of Nantucket, by Miss Maria Mitchell, daughter of
Hon. W. Mitchell, one of the executive council of this State.
Mr. Mitchell made an entry of the discovery at the time in
his journal. In consequence of Miss Mitchell's diffidence,
she would not allow any publicity to be given to her discovery
till its reality was ascertained. Her father, however, by the
first mail that left Nantucket for the mainland, addressed a
letter to Mr. W. C. Bond, director of the observatory in this
place, acquainting him with his daughter's discovery. A copy
of this letter I herewith transmit to you. The comet was
not discovered in Europe till the 3d of October, when it was
seen by Father de Vico, the celebrated astronomer at Rome.

"You perceive from this statement that, if Mr. Mitchell
had addressed his letter to the Danish minister at Washington
instead of Mr. Bond, his daughter would have been entitled to

CORRESPONDENCE 283

the medal, under the strict terms of the regulations. But
these regulations have not been generally understood in this
country ; and as the fact of Miss Mitchell's prior discovery is
undoubted, and recognized throughout Europe, it would be a
pity that she should lose the medal on a mere technical punc-
tilio. The comet is constantly called 'Miss Mitcheirs
comet* in the monthly journal of the Royal Astronomical
Society at London, and in the ' Astronomische Nachrichten,*"
the well-known astronomical journal, edited by Mr. Schu-
macher himself, at Altona. Father de Vico (who, with his
brothers of the Society of Jesuits, has left Rome since the
revolution there) was at this place (Cambridge) three days
ago, and spoke of Miss Mitchell's priority as an undoubted
fact.

" Last winter I addressed a letter to Mr. Schumacher, ac-
quainting him with the foregoing facts relative to the discov-
ery, and transmitting to him the original letter of Mr. Mitchell
to Mr. Bond, dated 3d October, bearing the original Nan-
tucket postmark of the 4th. I also wrote to Capt. W. H.
Smyth, late president of the Royal Astronomical Society of
England, desiring him to speak to Mr. Airy on the subject.
He did so, and Mr. Airy wrote immediately to Mr. Schu-
macher. Mr. Schumacher in his reply expressed the opinion,
in which Mr. Airy concurs, that under the regulations it is not
in their power to award the medal to Miss Mitchell. They
suggest, however, that an application should be made, through
the American legation at the Danish court, to His Majesty the
King of Denmark, for authority, under the present circum-
stances, to dispense with the literal fulfilment of the conditions.

** It is on this subject that I take the liberty to ask your
good offices. I accompany my letter with copies of a portion
of the correspondence which has been had on the subject,
and I venture to request you to address a note to the proper

284

MARIA MITCHELL

department of the Danish government, to the end that
authority should be given to Messrs. Schumacher and Airy to
award the medal to Miss Mitchell, provided they are satisfied
that she first discovered the comet,

" I will only add that, should you succeed in effecting this
object, you will render a very acceptable service to all the
friends of science in America.

" I remain, dear sir, with high consideration, your obedient,
faithful servant,

[Signed] "Edward Everett.

" To R. P. Fleniken, Esq., Charge d' Affaires of the United
States of America at Copenhagen."

R. p. FLENKEN, ESQ., TO THE COUNT DE KNUTH.

** Legation des Etats Unis d'Amerique, "I
k Copenhague, le 6 Septembre, 1848. /

" Monsieur le Ministre : J'ai Thonneur de remettre sous
ce pli a votre Excellence une lettre que j'ai re^ue d'un de mes
concitoyens les plus distingu^s, avec une correspondance
touchant une mati^re a laquelle il me semble que le Dane-
mark ne soit gu^re moins int^ress^ que ne le sont les Etats
Unis \ le premier y ayant contribu^ le digne motif, Tautre en
ayant heureusement accompli I'objet.

"Je recommande ces documents a I'examination attentive
de votre Excellence, sachant bien Tint^ret profond qu'elle ne
manque jamais de prendre a de tels sujets, et la reputation
^minente de cultivateur des sciences et de la litt^rature, dont
elle jouit avec tant de justice. J'y ai joint une lettre de
moi-meme, addressee k sa Majesty le Roi de Danemark.

" La mati^re dont il est question. Monsieur, sera d'autant
plus int^ressante ^ votre Excellence, qu'on peut la regarder
comme une voix de r^ponse addressee ^ Pancienne Scandi-

CORRESPONDENCE 285

navie, proclaimant les prodiges merveilleux de la science
moderae, des bords memes du Vinland des Vikinger hardis
et entreprenants du dixi^me et de Tonzi^me si^cles.

" Je prie votre Excellence de vouloir bien soumettre tous
les documents ci-joints a Tceil de sa Majesty, et dans le cas
heureux ou vous seriez d'avis que ma compatriote. Mile.
Mitchell, puisse avec justice revendiquer la recompense
g^nereuse institute par le Roi Fr^d^ric VL, alors, Monsieur,
je prie votre Excellence de vouloir bien appuyer de ses pro-
pres estimables et puissantes recommandations Tapplication
des amis de la jeune demoiselle.

" Je m*empresse a cette occasion, Monsieur, de renouveler

^ votre Excellence Tassurance de ma consideration tr^s

distingu^e.

" R. P. Fleniken.

"A Son Excellence M. le Comte de Knuth, Ministre
d*Etat, et Chef du D^partement des Affaires Etrang^res.

TRANSLATION.^

" Legation of the United States of America, 1
City of Copenhagen, September 6th, 1848. J

" Sm : I have the honor to communicate to you a letter from
a distinguished citizen of my own country, together with a
correspondence relating to a subject in which Denmark and
the United States appear somewhat equally interested, the
former in furnishing a laudable motive, and the latter as hap-
pily achieving the object.

"I commend these papers to your careful examination,
being well aware of the deep interest you take in all such
subjects, and of the eminent reputation you so justly enjoy

^ This and the other translations of the French letters are printed as
received in this country.

286 MARIA MITCHELL

as a gentleman of science and of literature. They are accom-
panied by a letter from myself addressed to His Majesty the
King of Denmark.

"This subject will not be the less interesting to you, sir,
as it would appear to be a returning voice addressed to ancient
Scandinavia, speaking of the wonderful achievements of mod-
em science, from the ' Vinland * of the hardy and enterprising
' Northmen * of the tenth and the eleventh centuries.

"I beg, therefore, that you will obligingly lay them all
before His Majesty, and should they happily impress you that
my countrywoman. Miss Mitchell, is fairly entitled to the
generous offering of King Frederic VI,, be pleased, sir, to
accompany the application of her friends in her behalf by
your own very valuable and potent recommendation.

" I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your Excellency
the assiu-ance of my most distinguished consideration.

[Signed] " R. P. Fleniken.

"To His Excellency The Count de Knuth, Minister of
State and Chief of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

R. p. FLENIKEN, ESQ., TO THE KING OF DENMARK.

" Legation des Etats Unis d'Amerique, 1
a Copenhague, le 6 Septembre, 1848. /

"Sire: Le soussign^ a Thonneur, par Tinterm^diaire de
M. votre ministre d'etat et chef du d^partement des affaires
^trang^res, de souraettre k votre Majesty une lettre d'un
citoyen tr^s distingu^ des Etats Unis, accompagn^e de la
copie d'une correspondance concernant une mati^re a laquelle
votre Majesty, soverain ^galeraent distingu^ par la lib^ralit^
g^n^reuse qu'elle fait voir dans ses rapports sociaux et
politiques, et par Tadmiration ardente qu'elle manifeste envers

CORRESPONDENCE 287

la science et la litt^rature, ne peut manquer de prendre un vif
int^ret.

"Le soussign^ se fSlicite beaucoup d'etre Tinterm^diaire
par les mains duquel ces documents arrivent sous Tceil de
votre Majesty, ^tant persuade que la lecture en foumira \
votre Majesty Toccasion de recourir avec une grande satis-
faction patriotique, comme protecteur Eminent des sciences,
^ rinstitution d'un de ses illustres pr^d^cesseurs ; et ce sou-
venir de la haute position a laquelle le Danemark s'est ^lev6
dans les arts et les sciences, ne lui sera peut-etre pas moins
doux quand elle songe que c'est justement sur cette meme
c6te, ou d6j^ au dixi^me si^cle Tintr^pidit^ et Vesprit hardi
de ses ancetres Scandinaves les avaient amends ^ la d^cou-
verte du grand continent occidental et ^ la fondation d'une
colonic, que vient de s'accomplir cette conquete de la sci-
ence, dont, parlent les dits papiers.

" Le soussign^ ose done esp^rer, qu'a la suite d'une exam-
ination attentive des lettres ci-jointes, et desquelles il parai-
trait etre g^n^ralement reconnu qu'a Mile. Mitchell des
Etats Unis est dA Thonneur d'avoir la premiere d^couvert
la comete t^lescopique qui aujourd'hui porte son nom, que
votre Majesty ne trouvera point dans la reserve louable qui
emp^cha cette jeune demoiselle de se pr^cipiter ^ la pour-
suite d'une renomm^e publique, une cause suffisante de lui
refuser le prix de sa brilliante d^couverte; mais qu'au con-
traire elle donnera I'ordre de lui exp^dier la m^daille, autant
comme une recompense dAe ^ ses ^minents talents scien-
tifiques, que pour t^moigner combien votre Majesty sait
appr^cier cette modestie charmante qui s'opposa a ce que
Mile. Mitchell recherchat une c^iebrit^ publique et scien-
tifique, avec le seul but de remplir une forme tout-^-fait
technique.

" Le soussign6, charge d'affaires des Etats Unis de TAm^-

288 MARIA MITCHELL

rique, saisit avec empressement cette occasion d'offrir k votre
Majesty Texpression de sa consideration la plus haute et la
plus distingu^e.

" R. P. Fleniken.

**X Sa Majesty Frederic VII., Roi de Danemark, Due de
Slesvig et de Holstein."

Legation of the United States of America, \

TRANSLATION.

cc

City of Copenhagen, September 4th, 1848.

**Sire: The undersigned has the honor, through your
Majesty's minister of state and chief of the department of
foreign affairs, to communicate to you a letter from a very
distinguished citizen of the United States, together with
copies of a correspondence relating to a subject in which your
Majesty, aHke distinguished for generous liberality in social
and political affairs as a sovereign, as well as an ardent ad-
mirer of science and of literature, will doubtless feel a lively
interest.

"The undersigned is happy to be the medium through
which those papers reach the eye of your Majesty, feeling
sensible that their perusal will furnish occasion to your
Majesty to recur with much national pleasure to the act of
one of your illustrious predecessors as a distinguished patron
of science ; and this recurrence to the eminent position that
Denmark has attained in the arts and the sciences may perhaps
not be the less pleasurable from the fact that the trophy of
science to which the papers allude was achieved on the very
coast where, as far back as the tenth century, the intrepidity
and enterprise of your Majesty's Scandinavian ancestors first
discovered and planted a colony upon the great western
continent.

CORRESPONDENCE 289

"The undersigned therefore hopes that, after a careful
examination of the accompanying papers, from which it
would seem to be admitted that Miss Mitchell, of the United
States, is entitled to the honor of first discovering the tele-
scopic comet bearing her name, your Majesty will not be able
to perceive in that commendable delicacy which forbade her
hastily seeking public notoriety a sufficient motive for with-
holding from her the reward of her eminent discovery ; but,
on the contrary, will direct the medal to be awarded to her,
not only as a suitable encouragement to her distinguished
scientific attainments, but also as evincing your Majesty's appre-
ciation of that beautiful virtue which withheld her from rush-
ing into public and scientific renown merely to comply with a
purely technical condition.

"The undersigned, American charge d'affaires, gladly
improves this very pleasant occasion to tender to your
Majesty the expression of his high and most distinguished
consideration.

[Signed] "R. P. Fleniken.

"To his Majesty Frederic VII., King of Denmark, Duke
of Schleswig and Holstein."

((

THE COUNT DE KNUTH TO MR. FLENIKEN.

** Copenhague, ce 6 Octobre, 1848.

Monsieur : J'ai eu Thonneur de recevoir votre office du 6
du pass6, par lequel vous avez exprim^ le d^sir que la m^daille
institute par feu le Roi Fr^d^ric VL, en recompense de la
d^couverte de com^tes t^lescopiques, fAt accord^e a Mile.
Maria Mitchell, de Nantucket dans les EtatsUnis d'Am^rique.
" Apr^s avoir examine les pieces justificatives que vous
avez bien voulu me communiquer relativement ^ cette re-
clamation, je ne saurais que partager votre avis. Monsieur,

290

MARIA MITCHELL

qu*il paralt hors de doute que la d^couverte de la com^te
en question est effectivement dAe aux savantes recherches
de Mile. Mitchell ; et que ce n'est que faute de n'avoir pas
observe les formalit^s prescrites, qu'elle n*a point jusqu*ici
regu une marque de distinction k laquelle elle paralt avoir de
si justes titres.

"Le savant astronome, le Professeur Schumacher, ayant
^galement recommand^ Mile. Mitchell a la faveur qu'elle
sollicite maintenant, je me suis empress^ de r^f(§rer cette
question au roi, mon auguste maitre, en mettant en meme
temps sous les yeux de sa Majesty la lettre que vous lui avez
addressee k ce sujet; et c*est avec bien du plaisir que je
me vols aujourd'hui k meme de vous faire part, Monsieur,
que sa Majesty n*a point h^sit^ k satisfaire a votre demande,
en accordant k Mile. Mitchell la m^daille qu'elle ambitionne.

" Aussit6t que cette m^daille sera frapp^e, je m'empresse-
rai de vous la faire parvenir.

" En attendant je saisis avec bien du plaisir cette occasion
pour vous renouveler, Monsieur, les assurances de ma con-
sideration tr^s distingu^e.

" F. W. Knuth.

"X Monsieur Fleniken, Charg^ d* Affaires des Etats Unis
d'Am^rique."

TRANSLATION.

** Copenhagen, 6th October, 1848.

" Sir : I have had the honor to receive your communication
of the 6th ultimo, in which you express the desire that the
medal instituted by his late Majesty, Frederic VI., as a
reward for the discovery of telescopic comets, should be
granted to Miss Maria Mitchell, of Nantucket, in the United
States of America.

CORRESPONDENCE 29 1

" On examination of the justificatory pieces which you
have been good enough to forward me, relating to her claim,
I cannot do otherwise than participate in your opinion, sir,
that it would appear to admit of no doubt that the dis-
covery of the comet in question was really due to Miss
Mitchell's learned researches ; and that her not having as yet
received a mark of distinction to which she seems to have
such a just claim was entirely owing to her not having
observed the prescribed forms.

"The learned astronomer. Professor Schumacher, having
likewise recommended Miss Mitchell to the favor which she
now solicits, I hasten to refer this question to the king, my
august master, at the same time laying before His Majesty the
letter which you have addressed to him on this subject ; and I
have much pleasure in being now enabled to inform you, sir,
that His Majesty has not hesitated to grant your request
by awarding to Miss Mitchell the medal which she desires.

" As soon as this medal is struck, I will have it forwarded
to you, and meanwhile have much pleasure in availing myself
of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my
most distinguished consideration.

[Signed] " F. W. Knuth.

" To Mr. Fleniken, Charge d' Affaires of the United States of
America."

MR. FLENIKEN TO THE COUNT DE KNUTH.

** Legation des Etats Unis d*Am6rique, "I
^ Copenhague, le 7 Octobre, 1848. J

"Monsieur: Le soussign^ a eu Thonneur de recevoir
Toffice que votre Excellence lui a address^ en date d'hier pour
lui faire part de la nouvelle heureuse que sa Majesty, apr^s
avoir examine les documents que vous avez bien voulu lui

292 MARIA MITCHELL

soumettre, ayant pour objet d'^tablir le fait que Mile.
Mitchell ait la premiere d^couvert la com^te t^lescopique
d*Octobre de Tan dernier, a bien voulu trouver ces preuves
suffisantes, et a ordonn^ qu*on frappe une m^daille, afin de la
lui faire presenter comme une marque de distinction que sa
Majesty croit qu'elle m^rite en eifet, quoiqu'elle n'ait pas
rigoureusement observe les formalit^s prescrites par le Roi
Fr^d^ric VI., fondateur de ce don.

" Le soussign^ s'empresse done d*assurer votre Excellence
et en meme temps de vous prier. Monsieur, de vouloir bien
faire parvenir cette assurance k sa Majesty, que cet acte
signal^ de liberality ne peut manquer d'etre dignement et
hautement appr^ci^ par les institutions scientifiques des Etats
Unis, par Mile. Mitchell qui est I'objet de cette distinction
g^n^reuse, et par les nombreux amis scientifiques de cette
dame ; enfin, par tous ceux qui prennent de Tint^ret a la
r^ussite heureuse des recherches astronomiques.

" Le soussign6 ne peut terminer cette communication sans
exprimer a votre Excellence (en la priant de porter aussi ses
sentiments k la connaissance de sa Majesty) sa vive apprecia-
tion de ce noble et 6clatant acte de justice, si promptement et
si g^n^reusement rendu k sa jeune compatriote par le roi de
Danemark, et il saisit avec empressement cette occasion de
renouveler k votre Excellence les assurances de sa considera-
tion tr^s distingu^e.

**R. P. Fleniken.

** A Son Excellence M. le Comte de Knuth, Ministre d'Etat
et Chef du Department des Affaires Etrang^res."

CORRESPONDENCE 293

TRANSLATION.

** Legation of the United States, 1
Copenhagen, October 7th, 1848. J

** Sir : The undersigned has the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your Excellency's communication of yesterday's
date, conveying to him the gratifying intelligence that His
Majesty, from an examination of the evidence which you
obligingly laid before him, tending to establish the fact of
Miss Mitchell's having discovered the telescopic comet of
October, last, has been pleased to consider it quite satisfactory,
and has ordered a medal to be struck for her as a mark of
distinction to which his Majesty deems her entitled, notwith-
standing her omission to comply with the prescribed conditions
of Frederic VI., who instituted the donation.

"The undersigned, therefore, begs to express to you, sir,
and through you to His Majesty, the assurance that this
eminent act of liberality cannot fail to be duly and highly
appreciated by the scientific institutions of his own country,
by Miss Mitchell herself, who is the object of this generous
distinction, and by her numerous scientific friends, as well
as by all who feel an interest in successful astronomical
achievements.

" The undersigned cannot close this communication without
expressing to you and to the king his own unaffected appre-
ciation of this noble and distinguished act of justice, so
promptly and so generously bestowed upon his unobtrusive
countrywoman by the king of Denmark, and avails himself
of the occasion to renew to your Excellency the assurance of
his most distinguished consideration.

[Signed] " R. P. Fleniken.

"To His Excellency The Count de Knuth, Minister of
State, etc., etc., etc."

INDEX

Abbott, Dr. Lyman, 243.

Adams, Prof. J. C, 115, 118, 129,

I37» 139-
Addison, loi, 133.

Airy, George (later Sir George

Airy)> 95> 9^, 100, 119, 121,

139, 140, 165.
Airy, Mrs., 99, 113, 115, 117, 119,

128.
Akers, Paul, 147.
Alcott, A. Bronson, 246, 248.
Almanac, American Nautical, 24,

50.
Ambleside, 122.
American Academy of Arts and

Sciences, 22.
American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, 22, 23,

260.
American Philosophical Society,

260.
Anderson, Lars, 74.
Anthony, Susan B., 260.
Antonelli, Cardinal, 154, 155.
Arago, Francis J. D., 139, 142.
Argelander, Frederick W. A., 166
Arnold, Matthew, 195.
Arnott, Dr. Neil, 129, 130.
Association for the Advancement of

Women, 179, 258, 260.
Astronomers, 37, 137, 184, 1S6.
Astronomy, 8, 9, 29, 37, 184, 185.
Atheneum Library of Nantucket, 5,

10, 29, 34.

Augusta, Ga., 79.
Aurora Leigh, 52.
Aylesbury, 106, 107.

Babbage, Charles, 129, 130.
Bache, Prof. A. D., 23, 24, 164.
Bisbane, Sir William, 132.
Bond, George P., 20, 40, 138.
Bond, William C, 19, 166, 269,

275.
Bonds, The, 37, 138, 163.
Bonpland, Aime, 166.
Booth, Miss Mary L., 256.
Boston, Mass., 203, 221, 224, 234,

261.
Bowditch, Dr. Nathaniel, 10, 162.
Brazil, Emperor of, 190.
Bremer, Fredrika, 75, 146.
British Museum, 102, 103.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 116.
Buchanan, President, 165.
Burlington, Iowa, Eclipse at, 176.

Calton Hill, 130.

Cambridge, England, 112, 12^.

Cambridge, Mass., 17, 27, 50.

Cassini, John Dominie, 140.

Catholic Church (Roman), 30.

Challis, Prof. James, 115.

Channing, 248.

Charles IL, King, 94.

Charleston, S.C., 72, 78.

Child, Lydia Maria, 25X), 251, 257,

Clark, Alvan, 87, 183, 190.

296

INDEX

Clarke, Dr. Edward H., 195.
Clarke, Rev. James Freeman, 34.
Coast Survey, United States, 24.
Cobbe, Frances Power, 216, 217,

218.
Colburn's Algebra, 5.
Coliseum, The, 143, 144, 152.
Collegio Romano, The, 150.
Colman, Henry, 123.
** Color of Stars," 233, 237.
Columbia College, 261.
Comet of 1847, 19; of 1854, 30,

34; of 1881, 193.
Concord School of Philosophy, 246.
Cooking School, A, 251.
"Cosmos," 18.
Crosby, Professor, 171.
Cushman, Charlotte, 253.
Czar, The Russian, 183, 200, 201.

Davis, Admiral C- H., 24.

Dawes, W. R., 20, 87.

Denmark, King of, 19, 267, 280.

Denver, Colo., 224, 231.

de Vico, Father, 20.

*' Discipline " of the Society of

Friends, 6.
Dix, Dorothea L., 24, 25, 80.
Dolland telescope, 9.
Dome party. The, 191, 192.
Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil,

190.

Eclipse of 1831,9, 196; of 1869,

176; of 1878, 224.
Edgeworth's stories. Miss, 5.
Edinboro', 130, 13 1, 132.
Edinboro', Duke of, 201.
Education, 6, 7, 9, 10, 180, 182,

184.
Elizabeth, Queen, 103.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 45, 116,

129, 195.

Endowment Fund, Maria Mitchell,

190.
England, 85, 130, 134, 135.
English lakes, 122.
English traits, 133, 134, 135.
Esther, 26, 27.
Europe, Miss Mitchell's first trip

to, 85-168; second trip, 197,

219.
Everett, Edward, 21, 267, 284.
Eydkuhnen, Prussia, 197, 199.

Fairfax family, The, 161.

Florence, Italy, 160.

Fox, George, 12.

Frederick VI., of Denmark, King,

19.
Frederick VII., of Denmark, King,

20.
Friends, Society of, 1,12.
Frothingham, Rev. O. B., 257.
Fuller, Margaret, 34, 93.

Galileo, 37, 151.
Garrison, William Lloyd, 259.
Giles, Rev. Henry, 29.
Glasgow, 132.
Goldsmith, 51, icx).
Gould, Dr. Benjamin A., 164.
Gray, Dr. Asa, 22.
Greek Church, The, 211.
Greeley, Deacon, 48.
Greeley, Horace, 41.
Greenwich Observatory, 94.
Greenwich Park, 95.
Gregory's Astronomy, 245.

Hall, Dr. E. B., 25.
Hanover College, 261.
Harris, Dr. W. T., 247.
Hartnup, Professor, 88.
Harvard College, 9.
Hawthorne, Julian, 90.

INDEX

297

Hawthorne, Mrs., 90, 91, 92, 93.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 89, 90, 92,

93-
Hawthorne, Rosa, 90, 92.

Hawthorne, Una, 92, 171.

Hemans, Mrs., 116.

Henry Vni., King, 118.

Henry, Prof. Joseph, 159, 244, 245.

Herschel, Caroline, 126, 130.

Herschel, Lady, 126, 127, 128.

Herschel, Miss, 195.

Herschel, Sir John, 125, 128, 139,

154-
Herschel, Sir William, 8, 130.

Herschels, The, 126.

Hill, Pres. Thomas, 175.

Holderness, N.H., 249.

Holy Week in Rome, 145.

Hosmer, Harriet, 147.

Humboldt, Alexander, 164.

Illinois, 58.

*' Inquirer," Nantucket, 49, 51.
Institute, American, 22.
Italy, 143.

Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, 194.
Jefferson, Thomas, 166.
Johns Hopkins University, 182.
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 103, 104,

105.
Jupiter, 118.

Kansas, 167, 225.
Kepler, 223.
Kindergarten system, 4.

Lassell, W., 87, 88.
Lawrence, Abbot, 126.
Lee, Dr. John, 109, 1 10, ill, 132.
Lesbarcault, 234.

Leverrier, M. J. J., 139, 140, 141-
I43» 234.

Lewis, Grace Anna, 263.
Liverpool, 86.
Lodore, 125.
London, 93.

Louis XVIII., King, 109.
Lucy family of Stratford-upon-
Avon, The, 108.
Luther, 251.
Lyman, Miss, 173.
Lynn, Mass., 167, 171.

Macdonald, George, 241.

Maclaurin, Colin, 131.

Mammoth Cave, 84.

"Marble Faun," 93, 171.

Mario, 106.

Martineau, Rev. James, 89.

Massachusetts, 69, 126, 134, 173.

Maury, Lieut. M. F., 162, 165.

Medals, Miss Mitchell's, 21.

Milton, 29, 43, 120.

Mississippi River, The, 60, 65.

Mitchell, Lydia, 2.

Mitchell, Maria, birth, i; parents,
2, 3; home life, 4; education,
7; aids her father in his ob-
servations, 8; teachers, 10;
appointed librarian in the Nan-
tucket Atheneum, 10; her friend-
ships for boys and girls, 10; her
fondness for books, 11; helps
buy a piano, 12; scientific soci-
ety, 15; love of children, 15;
her domestic capabilities, 15;
her timidity, 16; extract from
Diary describing a busy day, 16;
discovers a telescopic comet, 19;
receives a gold medal from the
King of Denmark, 21; elected
to membership in several sci-
entific societies, 22; becomes
a computer for the American
Nautical Almanac, 24; employed

298

INDEX

under the United States Coast
Survey, 24; meets Miss Dix, 24;
extracts from Diary, 1853, 25;
her visitors at Library, 29; ob-
serving and computations, 30;
visits Plymouth, 32; extract on
observing, 34; the Atheneum
Library, 41; sees Rachel, 44;
hears Emerson lecture, 45; her
use of money, 48; journal of
the hard winter, 48; diary of
the Southern tour: from Mead-
ville to St. Louis, 56; in St.
Louis, 58; on the Mississippi
River, 60; New Orleans slave-
market, (i(i\ a negro church, 67;
Southern traits, 68; Savannah,
70; Charleston, 72; calls received
and paid, 73; Miss Pinckney,
75; the negroes, 77; from
Charleston to Nashville, 79;
meets Mrs. Pres. Polk, 80;
anecdote of Miss Dix, 80; Mam-
moth Cave, 80; the Natural
Bridge, 84; first trip to Europe:
Liverpool astronomers, 85; the
Hawthdrnes, 86; London, 93;
Greenwich Observatory, 94;
visits Admiral and Mrs. Smyth
and Dr. Lee, 106; Cambridge
University and Dr. Whewell,
112; visits Ambleside and Miss
Southey, 112; the Herschels,
125; a London rout, 128; the
Observatories at Edinboro* and
Glasgow, 130; Paris Observatory
and Leverrier, 140; Rome, 143;
meets Harriet Hosmer, 147; the
Collegio Romano and Secchi,
150; meets Mrs. Somerville,
160; Humboldt, 164; death of
Mrs. Mitchell and removal to
Lynn, 167; is presented with a

telescope, 168; extracts from
letters, 168; appointed Professor
of Astronomy at Vassar College,
171 ; original scientific research
gives place to the duties of teach-
ing and interest in the higher
education of women, 172; early
days of the college, 173; gives
up Nautical Almanac work, 172;
death of Mr. Mitchell, 175;
visits a class in Astronomy at
Harvard College, 175; observes
the total eclipse of 1869 at
Burlington, la., 176; her pupils,
178; their practical work with
instruments, 180; the relations
between professor and pupils,
178; her methods of teaching,
179; notes on ** Aids,** 181; on
science, 186; on women's *^ rev-
erence for authority,'* 187;
" Music," 188; begging money
for the Observatory, 189; the
total eclipse of 1878 at Denver,
Colo., 19c; the comet of 188 1,
193; the ''dome party," 191;
extracts on ''honors" and over-
work, 195; visit from Miss
Herschel, 195; impressions of
Matthew Arnold, 195; the re-
turn of the eclipse of 1831, 196;
her second trip to Europe: her
account of a visit to St. Peters-
burg and the Pulkova Obser-
vatory, 197; travels with a
family from Moscow, 213;
calls on Miss F. P. Cobbe in
London, 215; visits the "Glas-
gow College for Girls," 218; a
paper '* on Science," 220; Den-
ver and the Solar Eclipse of
1878, 224; "Colors of Stars,"
233 ; her religious beliefs : com-

INDEX

299

ments on sermons, 239; talk with
Professor Henry, 244; with Pro-
fessor Peirce, 245; two visits to
the Concord School of Philoso-
phy, 246; conversations with
Whittier, 248; visits a cooking-
school, 251; fondness for con-
undrums and stories, 253;
anecdotes, 254; her letter-
writing, 255; extracts from
her letters, 256; Woman Suff-
rage, 259; a member of various
societies, 260; her published
writings, 261; resigns her posi-
tion at Vassar College, 261 ; her
death, 262.

Mitchell, William, 3.

Mobile, Ala., 70.

Moscow family, A, 213.

Mosher, Dr. Eliza M., 263.

Murray, Miss, 72.

Murray, Sir William Keith, 132.

Music, 188.

Nantucket, Mass., 2, 9.

Nashville, Tenn., 79.

Natchez, Miss., 65.

Natural Bridge, 84.

Negro church, A, 67.

Neptune, 138, 223.

New England, 57, 70.

New England Women*s Club, 261,

New Orleans, La., 66.

Newton, Sir Isaac, 10 1 -103.

New York (city), 193, 256.

New York (state), I, 165.

Niagara, 84.

Nichol, Prof. J. P., 132.

Nicholas, Emperor, 200.

Observatory, Cambridge, Eng., 115.
Observatory, Dudley, 165.

Observatory, Edinboro*, 131, 132,

133-
Observatory, Greenwich, 165.

Observatory, Imperial, 139.

Observatory, Royal, 140.

Pacific Bank of Nantucket, 8.

** Paradise Lost," 29.

Paris, 89, 136.

Peabody, Dr. A. P., 9, 242.

Peabody, Elizabeth P., 168, 248.

Peirce, Prof. Benjamin, 7, 46, 139,

175, 245, 246.
Peirce, Cyrus, 7.
**PhMre," 44.
Photography, Celestial, 163.
Pilgrims, The, 32.
Pinckney, Miss, 75, 78.
Plymouth, Mass., 32.
Poinsett, Mrs., 78.
Polk, Mrs. President, 79, 80.
Pope Pius IX., 154.
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 253,254.
Powell, Prof, and Mrs. Baden, 128.
Pulkova Observatory, 197.
Puritans, The, i.

Quakers, i, 2, 3, 5.

Rachel, 42, 44, 45.
Raymond, Dr. John II., 191.
Religion, 29, 69, 211.
Rocky Mountains, 224, 227.
Rogers, Prof. Henry B., 128.
Roget, P. M., 129.
Rome, 143, 158.
RUmker, Mme., 20, 21.
Russia, 197.
Rutgers College, 261.

Sabine, Gen. and Mrs., 99.
St. Ignasio, Church of, 155.
St. Isaac, Cathedral of, 202.

300

INDEX

St. Louis, Mo., 58.

St. Paul's, London, 104.

St. Peter's, Rome, 92.

St. Petersburg, 200, 201, 215, 257.

San Marino, 1 70.

Saturn, 153.

Savannah, Ga., 70.

« ' Scarlet Sunday, ' ' Cambridge

University, 119.
Scholarships, 181.
Schumacher, Professor, 20.
Secchi, Father, 150, 158.
Sedgwick, Prof. Adam, 117, 120.
Sewing, 25, 26.
Seyffarth, Gustavus, 59.
Shakspere, 62, 203, 108.
Siasconset ('Sconset), 49, 51, 54-
Stillman, Prof. Benjamin, 86.
Slave Market, A, 66, 67.
Slavery, 69, 76, 134.
Smith, Judge, Anecdotes of, 69,

70.
Smithsonian Institution, 41.
Smyth, Admiral W. H., 21, 107-

III, 168, 169.
Smyth, Mrs. W. H., 128, 167.
Smyth, Prof. C. P., 131.
Somerville, Dr. William, 160, 161.
Somerville, Mary, 159, 160, 161,

162, 163, 166.
South, Sir James, 109.
Southey, Miss, 124.
Southey, Robert, 124.
Stebbins, Miss, 253.
Stewart, Mrs. A. T., 257.
Stokes, Prof. G. G., 129.
Stowe, Mrs. H. B., 17.
Struve, Karl, 98.
Struve, Prof. Otto, 206, 207.
Struve, Wilhelm, 206.

Sumner, Charles, 80.
Sydney, Sir Philip, 46.

Taylor, John, 86.
Taylor, Pres. James M., 264.
Tennessee, 79.
Thackeray, 90.
Thames, The, 95.
Townby, Dr., 129.
Trinity College, Cambridge, 112,
113-114, 120.

Unitarian Church, 52; clergymen,

45.
Unitarianism, 174.

Van Arsdale, Mr., 31.

Vassar College, 172, 195.

Vatican, 144.

Verses by Miss Mitchell, 27.

Vestal Street, Nantucket, Miss

Mitchell's birthplace, 3, 9.
Victoria, Queen, 120.

War of i8i2,The, 2.
Washington, George, 78, 160, 194.
Webster, Daniel, 134.
Westminster Abbey, 100.
Westmoreland, 122.
Whately, Archbishop, Anecdote of,

100.
Whewell, Dr. William, 113, 118,

119, 120, 121, 162.
White, Peregrine, 33.

Whitney, Prof. Mary W., 179.

Whittier, John G., 248, 249, 250.

** Woman's Rights," 217.

Woman Suffrage, 259.

Zenobia, Miss Hosmer's statue of,
149-

I

QB
36
.M7

DATE DUE

I

^.^Jm

DECl. '

NOV 5-

m

MAR2JLl97t

AUG 9 1984